Haze pollution becomes more and more frequent in urban regions of China. Compared to ground based measurement approaches

satellite remote sensing can obtain observation of haze in wide areas and monitor their distribution and intensity. The Chinese environmental satellites of HJ-1A and HJ-1B play important roles in atmosphere monitoring due to their high spatial resolution

high temporal resolution and wide swath. In this paper

aerosol optical depth during haze in January 2013 is retrieved u sing HJ-1 CCD blue and green bands based on the assumption of stable surface reflectance in a short period. Applications of HJ-1 CCD haze monitoring are also evaluated and feasibility and advantages of the high-resolution satellite are analyzed.