In recent years, the rapid laser technology has promoted the development of spectroscopic technology. Various on-line monitoring technologies based on optical detection and spectral retrieval play an irreplaceable role in the field of environmental monitoring with high sensitivity, high resolution, high selectivity, multi-component, real-time and other advantages. The new development of on-line monitoring technology in the field of environmental pollution and environmental security is explored. And some beneficial suggestions about continuous development of science and technology of optical remote sensing application are proposed.

Research and development of advanced haze monitoring technology to observe and understand the characteristics of atmospheric haze pollution are the basis for the determination of haze pollution control measures in China. Firstly, the development status, challenges and problems are presented. Secondly, the researches and development of atmospheric environmental monitoring techniques in the Chinese Academy of Sciences are introduced, including the atmospheric LIDAR for fine particles, ozone and water vapour measurement, the atmospheric oxidation (HOx, NO3 radicals) online measurement systems, the large-scale smog chamber, the observation platform for physical and chemical properties of atmospheric haze, and the atmospheric haze stereoscopic monitoring network for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area.

The oxidizability of NO3 radical in the night is comparable with that of diurnal OH radical. Given the importance of NO3 radical in the nocturnal chemical process, accurate measurement of its concentration in the atmosphere has become an essential topic in current research. NO3 radical has the short lifetime and low concentration (approximately several hundred ppt), which brings a challenge to detect NO3 radical. In the 1980s and 1990s, differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) and matrix isolation electron spin resonance (MI-ESR) are mainly applied to detect NO3 radical. With the rapid development of technology, cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS), cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy (CEAS), laser induced fluorescence (LIF) and chemical ionization mass spectrometry (CIMS) are gradually developed to detect NO3 radical at the beginning of this century. The detection processes of NO3 radical are reviewed, the principles of several methods, the advantage and disadvantage of them are introduced in brief. In addition, the process of field observations are outlined.

Air pollution problem on a global or regional scale has become increasingly prominent. Meanwhile, satellite remote sensing of air quality also evolved dramatically over the last decades. Application of remote sensing technology in aerosol, haze, near-surface particulate matter, pollutant gases and greenhouse gases are reviewed for current instruments, along with inversion algorithms and their process. The importance of developing a software system for monitoring air quality using multi-source satellite data is also discussed. For the requirement of satellite remote sensing of air quality over China, the existing inadequacies of the development of atmospheric remote sensing in China are pointed out, and some recommendations are given for further promoting and improving the application of remote sensing technology in atmospheric monitoring and air pollution epidemiologic studies.

The importance of space-borne wind lidar for the research of global meteorology and its recent development by NASA and ESA were describled. The Ocean Remote Sensing Institute of Ocean University of China (OUC) developed the Doppler Wind Lidar from a mobile system to airborne lidar system, and a simulation software system using LabVIEW for space-borne wind lidar was designed based on the iodine-filter or Febry-Perot filter. The simulation software is testified by the true wind data acquired by the mobile lidar from land-surface to 3 km and 3 km to 20 km respectively, the simulation results show that the requirement of a space-borne wind lidar is achieved after an accumulation of 1300 pulses.

After more than three decades’ development, the differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) method is widely used to measure the atmospheric trace gases in forms of ground based, air borne and satellite platform. Recently, the DOAS technique made great progresses in atmospheric aerosol measurement, including aerosol optical depth (AOD), extinction coefficient, size distribution and pollution type, which provides a new method for atmospheric environment monitoring and atmospheric chemistry research. Studies about the active DOAS technique to measure ground surface aerosol optical parameters and passive technique to retrieve vertical aerosol optical properties were reviewed, respectively. Afterwards, new ideas for the research on the aerosol monitoring by the DOAS technique were put forward.

A compared experiment of PM2.5 mass concentration automatic and manual sampling methods was carried out in Shangdianzi Atmospheric Background Station in Beijing from September to October in 2013 by using ray automatic observation instruments and filter-based sampling equipment. The results showed that there is good consistency and significant linear relationship between the observation data of the two methods; when PM2.5 mass concentration is lower than 35 μg·m-3 or higher than 250 μg·m-3, the deviation between the two methods is larger than other circumstances; along with the increase of PM2.5 mass concentration, the deviation of two methods increased gradually. The linear regression equation’s slope, intercept and correlation coefficient between the two methods all reach the relevant requirements of the People’s Republic of China State Environmental Protection Standard of HJ 653-2013. For all observation data, greater than 10 μg·m-3 and the range data of 10～150 μg·m-3, a correct regression equation is established respectively, and also according to the different air back trajectories conditions correct equations are established. The correction effects shows that the established equati within the rae data of 10～150 μg·m-3 is the best one.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which participated in photochemical reactions, were main precursor of photochemical pollution, and also the critical pollutants that currently affected China’s urban air quality. The pollution situation of VOCs was complex and had many unknown factors, due to the lack of convenient and fast monitoring measurement. The technology of solar occultation flux based on FTIR(SOF-FTIR)was used to rapidly scan pollution areas for real-time monitoring, and it was found that vertical column density peak values of most VOCs was ranged from 10 ppm·m to 60 ppm·m, and local pollution was easily formed.

Sulfocompounds is one of the main odor material. A mid-infrared laser based gas sensor is developed for continuous monitoring of the sulfocompounds in pollution emissions. A mid-infrared distributed feedback interband cascade laser (DFB-ICL) is used as light source, and the working wavelength was about of 3.3 μm. A hollow silica waveguide is used for gas cell, and the core diameter is 1000 μm, the length is 5 m. A home-made multi-channel digital lock-in amplifier is adopted to demodulate the 1f and 2f harmonics simultaneously, and calibration-free measurement has been attained by normalized the 2f harmonics with the 1f harmonics. Different wavelength of lasers can be applied to detect methyl mercaptan, dimethyl sulfide, dimethyl sulfide and hydrogen sulfide.

The remote sensing of upper atmospheric environment is very important for understanding upper atmospheric structure, chemistry and energy cycle, and should be considered in some electro-optical engineering working within near space. The physical and chemical mechanism identified and the atmospheric parameters retrieved from upper atmospheric spectral radiance signal are important contents of upper atmospheric research. Based on rockets and satellites, the process of upper atmosphere sensed by the infrared spectra are reviewed, and some important results of remote sensing are summarized. These contents might be referenced in infrared remote sensing of the upper atmosphere.

POLDER is the first global polarization sensor to detect the aerosol. From then on, great improvements have been made on polarization remote sensing of aerosol. POLDER and Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS) are two typical detectors of Europe and America. Based on these detectors, lots of retrieval methods were developed. The development of POLDER, APS and their related retrieval method were arranged and analyzed. Then, polarized detection of aerosol in China, and the typical sensors, the Directional Polarimetric Camera (DPC) and the Advanced Atmosphere Multi-angle Polarization Radiometer (AMPR) were introduced. At last, the characteristics of Chinese development in polarization remote sensing were discussed.