Abstract: A new approach was proposed for optical remote sensing of the atmospheric aerosols.A multiwavelength telephotometer was used to measure the direct solar radiation and the sky light on the solar almucatar.Both scattering phase fuction and the atmospheric optic depth were inverted simulaneously.A "data base maching" method was used to retrieve the size distribution and refractive indices of atmospheric aerosols.Simultaneous observation of optical remote sensing and sampling has been done to check the method.The agreement of the results shows that the approcah proposed is reasonably correct and useful.