The aerosol optical depth data obtained by two methods are compared. The first method uses solar radiance measurements with the spectroradiometer Optronic OL752 installed inside the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Harbour (28.48 N, 16.24 W). The second one takes the solar radiation scattered by the atmosphere using the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) radiometer channels on board the NOAA meteorological satellites. A 91 per cent correlation between the two procedures was obtained for channel 1 (630nm).