title: Satellite remote sensing in epidemiological studies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Particulate matter air pollution is a ubiquitous exposure linked with multiple adverse health outcomes for children and across the life course. The recent development of satellite-based remote-sensing models for air pollution enables the quantification of these risks and addresses many limitations of previous air pollution research strategies. We review the recent literature on the applications of satellite remote sensing in air quality research, with a focus on their use in epidemiological studies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Aerosol optical depth (AOD) is a focus of this review and a significant number of studies show that ground-level particulate matter can be estimated from columnar AOD. Satellite measurements have been found to be an important source of data for particulate matter model-based exposure estimates, and recently have been used in health studies to increase the spatial breadth and temporal resolution of these estimates.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is suggested that satellite-based models improve our understanding of the spatial characteristics of air quality. Although the adoption of satellite-based measures of air quality in health studies is in its infancy, it is rapidly growing. Nevertheless, further investigation is still needed in order to have a better understanding of the AOD contribution to these prediction models in order to use them with higher accuracy in epidemiological studies.
authors: aDepartment of Geography and Environmental Development, Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva bCivil and Environmental Engineering, Technion, Haifa, Israel cDepartment of Preventive Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.
authors: Meytar
authors: M
authors: Sorek-Hamer
authors: Allan C
authors: AC
authors: Just
authors: Itai
authors: I
authors: Kloog
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000032:analysis; D002648:Child; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D006801:Humans; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis*; D058998:Remote Sensing Technology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D018531:Spacecraft
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D052638:Particulate Matter