A procedure is developed for calculation of atmospheric extinction characteristics (optical thickness, scattering height, and single scattering albedo) and surface albedo from radiometric images made at satellite altitudes. The procedure is a fast, computerized method, suitable for high volume processing of satellite imagery data, and thus can be used to map temporal and spatial distribution of aerosol parameters. Based on an analytical approximate solution of the equation of radiative transfer in a plane parallel atmosphere, the procedure is primarily applicable in the 0.4 μm to 0.8 μm wavelength range for solar zenith angles from 10¿ to 60¿, surface albedos between 0.03 to about 0.5, and atmospheric optical thicknesses from 0.2 to 2. If there exists a step-like change in the surface albedo (e.g., a seashore or river bank or other similar change of terrain), both surface reflectivity and atmospheric optical thickness can be derived from radiance measurements. In this case, the resultant optical thickness is not based on a known surface reflectivity and is essentially independent of the radiometer calibration. A sensitivity study (in Appendix I) shows that the procedure is highly sensitive to single scattering albedo and optical thickness. This high sensitivity enables one to obtain good results for the single scattering albedo and optical thickness, even with errors in the measured radiances as high as 20%. The resultant optical thickness and single scattering albedo, calculated at a specific wavelength, are not sensitive to aerosol size distribution. Methods for reducing the errors due to variations in surface albedo, nonuniformity of the aerosol layer (over small distances), and statistical errors of the digital data-are discussed. The procedure is applied to a Landsat image of the African coast where supporting surface measurements are available. Comparison of the resulting atmospherical optical thickness, sea albedo, and land albedo to ground measurements shows that the optical thickness can be retrieved with an error of 0.05. The sea albedo was retrieved within 0.01. The dependence of the procedure on ω0 is investigated.