ALBERT

Description: Aerosol is any small particle of matter that rests suspended in the atmosphere. Natural sources, such as deserts, create some aerosols; consumption of fossil fuels and industrial activity create other aerosols. All the microscopic aerosol particles add up to a large amount of material floating in the atmosphere. You can see the particles in the haze that floats over polluted cities. Beyond this visible effect, aerosols can actually lower temperatures. They do this by blocking, or scattering, a portion of the sun's energy from reaching the surface. Because of this influence, scientists study the physical properties of atmospheric aerosols. Reliable numerical models for atmospheric aerosols play an important role in research.

Description: Global distribution of aeolian dust is simulated from 1981 to 1996 with the Goddard Ozone Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport (GOCART) model. The results are assessed with in-situ measurements and the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) aerosol products. The annual budget over the different continents and oceans are analyzed. It is found that there is a maximum of 25% difference of global annual emission from the minimum in 1996 to the maximum in 1988. There is a downward trend of dust emission over Africa and East Asia, of 6 and 2 Tg/yr, respectively. The inter-annual variability of dust distribution is analyzed over the North Atlantic and Africa. It is found that in winter most of the North Atlantic and Africa dust loading is correlated with the North Atlantic Oscillation. The GOCART model indicates that a controlling factor of such correlation can be attributed to dust emission from the Sahel. The Bodele depression is the major dust source in winter and its inter-annual variability is highly correlated with the NAO. However, it is not possible to conclude without further analysis that the North Atlantic Oscillation is forcing the inter-annual variability of dust emission and in-turn dust concentration over the North Atlantic.

Description: The availability of global long-term estimates of surface UV radiation is very important, not only for preventive medicine considerations, but also as an important tool to monitor the effects of the stratospheric ozone recovery expected to occur in the next few decades as a result of the decline of the stratospheric chlorine levels. In addition to the modulating effects of ozone and clouds, aerosols also affect the levels of UV-A and W-B radiation reaching the surface. Oscillations in surface W associated with the effects of aerosol absorption may be comparable in magnitude to variations associated with the stratospheric ozone recovery. Thus, the accurate calculation of surface W radiation requires that both the scattering and absorption effects of tropospheric aerosols be taken into account. Although absorption effects of dust and elevated carbonaceous aerosols are already accounted for using Aerosol Index technique, this approach does not work for urban/industrial aerosols in the planetary boundary layer. The use of the new TOMS long-term global data record on UV aerosol absorption optical depth, can improve the accuracy of TOMS spectral UV products, by properly including the spectral attenuation effects of carbonaceous, urban/industrial and mineral aerosols. The TOMS data set on aerosol properties will be discussed, and results of its use in the TOMS surface W algorithm will be presented.

Description: The Angstrom Absorption Exponent (AAE) is a parameter commonly used to characterize the wavelength-dependence of aerosol absorption optical depth (AAOD). It is closely related to aerosol composition. Black carbon (BC) containing aerosols yield AAE values near unity whereas Organic carbon (OC) aerosol particles are associated with values larger than 2. Even larger AAE values have been reported for desert dust aerosol particles. Knowledge of spectral AAOD is necessary for the calculation of direct radiative forcing effect of aerosols and for inferring aerosol composition. We have developed a satellitebased method of determining the spectral AAOD of absorbing aerosols. The technique uses multi-spectral measurements of upwelling radiation from scenes where absorbing aerosols lie above clouds as indicated by the UV Aerosol Index. For those conditions, the satellite measurement can be explained, using an approximations of Beer's Law (BL), as the upwelling reflectance at the cloud top attenuated by the absorption effects of the overlying aerosol layer. The upwelling reflectance at the cloud-top in an aerosol-free atmospheric column is mainly a function of cloud optical depth (COD). In the proposed method of AAE derivation, the first step is determining COD which is retrieved using a previously developed color-ratio based approach. In the second step, corrections for molecular scattering effects are applied to both the observed ad the calculated cloud reflectance terms, and the spectral AAOD is then derived by an inversion of the BL approximation. The proposed technique will be discussed in detail and application results making use of OMI multi-spectral measurements in the UV-Vis. will be presented.

Description: The role of aerosol absorption on the radiative transfer balance of the earth-atmosphere system is one of the largest sources of uncertainty in the analysis of global climate change. Global measurements of aerosol single scattering albedo are, therefore, necessary to properly assess the radiative forcing effect of aerosols. Remote sensing of aerosol absorption is currently carried out using both ground (Aerosol Robotic Network) and space (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) based observations. The satellite technique uses measurements of backscattered near ultraviolet radiation. Carbonaceous aerosols, resulting from the combustion of biomass, are one of the most predominant absorbing aerosol types in the atmosphere. In this presentation, TOMS and AERONET retrievals of single scattering albedo of carbonaceous aerosols, are compared for different environmental conditions: agriculture related biomass burning in South America and Africa and peat fires in Eastern Europe. The AERONET and TOMS derived aerosol absorption information are in good quantitative agreement. The most absorbing smoke is detected over the African Savanna. Aerosol absorption over the Brazilian rain forest is less absorbing. Absorption by aerosol particles resulting from peat fires in Eastern Europe is weaker than the absorption measured in Africa and South America. This analysis shows that the near UV satellite method of aerosol absorption characterization has the sensitivity to distinguish different levels of aerosol absorption. The analysis of the combined AERONET-TOMS observations shows a high degree of synergy between satellite and ground based observations.

Description: Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) onboard Aura satellite retrieved aerosols properties using UV part of solar spectrum. The OMI near UV aerosol algorithm (OMAERUV) is a global inversion scheme which retrieves aerosol properties both over ocean and land. The current version of the algorithm makes use of TOMS derived Lambertian Equivalent Reflectance (LER) climatology. A new monthly climatology of surface LER at 354 and 388 nm have been developed. This will replace TOMS LER (380 nm and 354nm) climatology in OMI near UV aerosol retrieval algorithm. The main objectives of this study is to produce high resolution (quarter degree) surface LER sets as compared to existing one degree TOMS surface LERs, to product instrument and wavelength consistent surface climatology. Nine years of OMI observations have been used to derive monthly climatology of surface LER. MODIS derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) have been used to make aerosol corrections on OMI wavelengths. MODIS derived BRDF adjusted reflectance product has been also used to capture seasonal changes in the surface characteristics. Finally spatial and temporal averaging techniques have been used to fill the gaps around the globes, especially in the regions with consistent cloud cover such as Amazon. After implementation of new surface data in the research version of algorithm, comparisons of AOD and single scattering albedo (SSA) have been performed over global AERONET sites for year 2007. Preliminary results shows improvements in AOD retrievals globally but more significance improvement were observed over desert and bright locations. We will present methodology of deriving surface data sets and will discuss the observed changes in retrieved aerosol properties with respect to reference AERONET measurements.

Description: Aerosol absorption in the atmosphere poses a major uncertainty in assessing the aerosol climate effects. This uncertainty arises from the poorly quantified aerosol sources, especially black carbon emissions, and our limited knowledge of aerosol mixing state and optical properties. Here we use a global model GOCART to simulate atmospheric aerosols, including sulfate, black carbon, organic carbon, dust, and sea salt. We compare the model calculated total aerosol optical thickness, extinction, and absorption with those quantities from the ground-based sun photometer measurements from AERONET, satellite retrievals from the TOMS instrument, and field observations from ACE-Asia. We will examine the most sensitive factors in determining the aerosol absorption. and the consequences of assessing the aerosol radiative forcing and atmospheric heating associated with those factors.

Description: We describe a technique for combining CALIOP aerosol backscatter, MODIS spectral AOD (aerosol optical depth), and OMI AAOD (absorption aerosol optical depth) measurements for the purpose of estimating full spectral sets of aerosol radiative properties, and ultimately for calculating the 3-D distribution of direct aerosol radiative forcing. We present results using one year of data collected in 2007 and show comparisons of the aerosol radiative property estimates to collocated AERONET retrievals. Initial calculations of seasonal clear-sky aerosol radiative forcing based on our multi-sensor aerosol retrievals compare well with over-ocean and top of the atmosphere IPCC-2007 model-based results, and with more recent assessments in the "Climate Change Science Program Report: Atmospheric Aerosol Properties and Climate Impacts" (2009). We discuss some of the challenges that exist in extending our clear-sky results to all-sky conditions. On the basis of comparisons to suborbital measurements, we present some of the limitations of the MODIS and CALIOP retrievals in the presence of adjacent or underlying clouds. Strategies for meeting these challenges are discussed. We also discuss a methodology for using the multi-sensor aerosol retrievals for aerosol type classification based on advanced clustering techniques. The combination of research results permits conclusions regarding the attribution of aerosol radiative forcing to aerosol type.

Description: The wavelength-dependence of aerosol absorption optical depth (AAOD) is generally represented in terms of the Angstrom Absorption Exponent (AAE), a parameter that describes the dependence of AAOD with wavelength. The AAE parameter is closely related to aerosol composition. Black carbon (BC) containing aerosols yield AAE values near unity whereas Organic carbon (OC) aerosol particles are associated with values larger than 2. Even larger AAE values have been reported for desert dust aerosol particles. Knowledge of spectral AAOD is necessary for the calculation of direct radiative forcing effect of aerosols and for inferring aerosol composition. We have developed a satellitebased method of determining the spectral AAOD of absorbing aerosols. The technique uses high spectral resolution measurements of upwelling radiation from scenes where absorbing aerosols lie above clouds as indicated by the UV Aerosol Index. For those conditions, the satellite measured reflectance (rho lambda) is approximately given by Beer's law rho lambda = rho (sub 0 lambda) e (exp -mtau (sub abs lambda)) where rho(sub 0 lambda) is the cloud reflectance, m is the geometric slant path and tau (sub abs lambda) is the spectral AAOD. The rho (sub 0 lambda) term is determined by means of radiative transfer calculations using as input the cloud optical depth derived as described in Torres et al. [JAS, 2012] that accounts for the effects of aerosol absorption. In the second step, corrections for molecular and aerosol scattering effects are applied to the cloud reflectance term, and the spectral AAOD is then derived by inverting the equation above. The proposed technique will be discussed in detail and application results will be presented. The technique can be easily applied to hyper-spectral satellite measurements that include UV such as OMI, GOME and SCIAMACHY, or to multi-spectral visible measurements by other sensors provided that the aerosol-above-cloud events are easily identified.

Description: The Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) on board the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) would provide a unique opportunity for Earth and atmospheric research due not only to its Lagrange point sun-synchronous orbit, but also to the potential for synergistic use of spectral channels in both the UV and visible spectrum. As a prerequisite for most applications, the ability to detect the presence of clouds in a given field of view, known as cloud masking, is of utmost importance. It serves to determine both the potential for cloud contamination in clear-sky applications (e.g., land surface products and aerosol retrievals) and clear-sky contamination in cloud applications (e.g., cloud height and property retrievals). To this end, a preliminary cloud mask algorithm has been developed for EPIC that applies thresholds to reflected UV and visible radiances, as well as to reflected radiance ratios. This algorithm has been tested with simulated EPIC radiances over both land and ocean scenes, with satisfactory results. These test results, as well as algorithm sensitivity to potential instrument uncertainties, will be presented.