Tropical intercontinental optical measurement network of aerosol, precipitable water and total column ozone

A new generation of automatic sunphotometers is used to systematically monitor clear sky total column aerosol concentration and optical properties, precipitable water and total column ozone diurnally and annually in West Africa and South America. The instruments are designed to measure direct beam sun, solar aureole and sky radiances in nine narrow spectral bands from the UV to the near infrared on an hourly basis. The instrumentation and the algorithms required to reduce the data for subsequent analysis are described.