Spectroscopic measurements of gases and aerosols play a key role in the study of the atmosphere. These measurements provide essential information on atmospheric composition and global change, fluxes of gases between the Earth’s surface and atmosphere, air quality, radiative transfer, and remote sensing of the atmosphere. Spectroscopy is also an important tool in industrial emissions monitoring and control. Measurement challenges include attaining the required sensitivity to trace gases with mixing ratios ranging from ppm to sub-ppt and accounting for interferences from other gases and aerosol extinction. Desirable characteristics of spectroscopic instrumentation are detection of multiple gases, high temporal resolution, and small spatial coverage. To meet these measurement challenges in a cost-effective manner, spectroscopic technologies are actively being developed for use in atmospheric research and industrial emissions monitoring.

To promote the latest progress in exploring spectroscopic techniques for probing emissions and atmospheric monitoring of gases and aerosols, we invite authors to submit original research as well as review articles to this special issue. The articles would report new principles, technologies, or applications of optical spectroscopy for environmental monitoring.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Optical absorption spectroscopy
• Optical emission spectroscopy
• Trace gas detection
• Atmospheric remote sensing
• Kinetic studies for the physical chemistry of the atmosphere
• Optical properties of aerosols
• Line profile and line frequency analysis for atmospheric databases
• Cross sections measurements