Aerosol optical depth (AOD) is a crucial parameter in describing the atmospheric pollution and analyzing the influences of aerosol on the radiative equilibrium. Currently, no method can precisely and continuously measure the nocturnal AOD. In this study, a novel method was developed to retrieve the nocturnal AOD based on a remote sensing instrument called the charge-coupled device-laser aerosol detective system (CCD-LADS). CCD-LADS consists of a CCD camera, a continuous laser, a fisheye lens, and related filters. The AOD can be calculated by integrating the aerosol extinction coefficient profile retrieved from CCD-LADS measurements. The retrieved AOD was validated with AERONET and MODIS data sets. The comparison shows good agreement.