Plant productivity is tightly connected to the supply of solar radiation and water and to surface temperature. Solar radiation reaching the Earth’s surface and the water cycle are strongly modified by anthropogenic aerosols. In the present research project, we aim to quantify the impact of pollution aerosols on vegetation biophysics and carbon cycle. For this purpose, we apply satellite observations and global model simulations to investigate the spatial pattern in the relationship between aerosols and plant productivity across different ecosystems. To characterize globally plant productivity and the aerosol layer, we apply satellite observations for chlorophyl fluorescence from GOME-2 and Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) from MODIS. Concerning the aerosol layer, we use MODIS Collection 5 which provides AOD and its fine-fraction.