364-371The Multi-Wavelength Solar Radiometer (MWR), designed and
developed in the Space Physics Laboratory, has been extensively used by several
research institutions across the country for estimating columnar spectral
aerosol optical depth (AOD), the most important parameter needed for assessing
the impact of aerosols on regional aerosol forcing. A network of > 30 MWRs
is currently in operation under the Aerosol Radiative Forcing over India (ARFI)
Project of Indian Space Research Organization’s Geosphere Biosphere Program
(ISRO-GBP). This paper reports the results of an extensive inter-comparison of
the AODs deduced using the MWR with those obtained from other commercially
available instruments, such as a Multi-Filter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer
(MFRSR), a calibrated Microtops Sun Photometer (MTOPS) and an EKO Sun Photometer (ESP). The results indicated very
good agreement between the AOD derived from MWR with MFRSR, MTOPS and ESP with
correlation coefficients of ~ 0.99, 0.88 and 0.92, respectively. This report is
intended to serve as a reference document for researchers while using the MWR
along with other commercial instruments