Abstract: To explore the detection ability of the multiangle polarimetric remote sensing measurements in the ultraviolet band for aerosol layer height (ALH), the ALH retrieval information has been systematically evaluated under different observation conditions using the multiangle polarimetric measurements in ultraviolet bands. Based on the optimal estimation theory and the information content analysis method, the sensitivity of the ALH to the observations of 365 nm and 388 nm bands has been analyzed, and the impacts of different conditions on the information content and posterior error of ALH have also been assessed. The results show that: (1) The information content for ALH retrieval is significantly improved by adding multi-angle polarimetric measurements. (2) The information content increases significantly with the increase of the number of viewing angles, and the degree of freedom for signal (DFS) for ALH retrieval can be improved by more than 0.4. (3) Both the addition of polarization observation at 388 nm and the intensity observation at 365 nm can improve the DFS of ALH, however, compared to the intensity observation, the polarization observation shows better results and is less affected by the aerosol model error. Especially, the polarization observation can improve the ALH retrieval under low aerosol optical depth (AOD) conditions.

Key words: aerosol layer height, optimal estimation inversion, information content analysis, posteriori error