One algorithm has been developed for retrieving aerosol optical thickness from GMS-5 visible channel measurements, and then the algorithm was applied for obtaining the geographical distribution of aerosol optical thickness over East Asia during April 2002. Algorithm employs a look-up table based upon radiative transfer calculations with solar geometry, aerosol optical thickness, and surface albedo as inputs. Validation was conducted by comparing retrieved aerosol optical thickness with measured values from ground-based sky radiation measurements at Anmyon Do, Korea. It was found that the correlation coefficient is 0.71 with -0.03 of bias and 0.34 of root mean square error, suggesting that the algorithm developed in this study can be used for estimating aerosol optical thickness in a quantitative sense.