This paper introduces algorithm development strategies for the ADEOS-II (Midori-II) GLI atmospheric mission, and presents the flow chart and the principle of each algorithm. During the GLI science mission, which operated between 1996 and 2008, the principal investigators and co-investigators of the atmospheric discipline were developing and improving algorithms which distinguish cloudy from clear pixels on GLI images, retrieve cloud and aerosol properties, retrieve the amount of precipitable water, and estimate the radiation budget from GLI multispectral radiance data in collaboration with the GAIT team managed by JAXA EORC. Despite the short lifetime of the GLI project, important scientific results in the atmospheric discipline were obtained from GLI multispectral imaging data by using the algorithms we developed. This legacy will be applied in future Japanese Earth observing missions in next decade.