Potential use of low-cost hand-held sunphotometers for operational activities: Tamanrasset

The objective is to provide a comprehensive assessment of the potential use of the very low-cost Calitoo-TENUM hand-held sun-photometer for operational dust model and satellite observation validation activities within the WMO SDS-WAS.

Since February 2017, a Calitoo has been taking measurements in the heart of the Sahara Desert at the Tamanrasset World Meteorological Organization – Global Atmospheric Watch (WMO-GAW) station (Algeria).

Figure.- AERONET AOD computed at 500 nm from Cimel sun-photometer versus AOD computed from CALITOO hand-held sun-photometer at Tamanrasset. The gap in data in 2018 is due to the replacement of the Calitoo for a newly calibrated one.