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Application of the CALIOP Layer Product to Evaluate the Vertical Distribution of Aerosols Estimated by Global Models: AeroCom Phase I ResultsThe CALIOP (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) layer product is used for a multimodel evaluation of the vertical distribution of aerosols. Annual and seasonal aerosol extinction profiles are analyzed over 13 sub-continental regions representative of industrial, dust, and biomass burning pollution, from CALIOP 2007-2009 observations and from AeroCom (Aerosol Comparisons between Observations and Models) 2000 simulations. An extinction mean height diagnostic (Z-alpha) is defined to quantitatively assess the models' performance. It is calculated over the 0-6 km and 0-10 km altitude ranges by weighting the altitude of each 100 m altitude layer by its aerosol extinction coefficient. The mean extinction profiles derived from CALIOP layer products provide consistent regional and seasonal specificities and a low inter-annual variability. While the outputs from most models are significantly correlated with the observed Z-alpha climatologies, some do better than others, and 2 of the 12 models perform particularly well in all seasons. Over industrial and maritime regions, most models show higher Z-alpha than observed by CALIOP, whereas over the African and Chinese dust source regions, Z-alpha is underestimated during Northern Hemisphere Spring and Summer. The positive model bias in Z-alpha is mainly due to an overestimate of the extinction above 6 km. Potential CALIOP and model limitations, and methodological factors that might contribute to the differences are discussed.
Document ID
20140005807
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
doi:10.1029/2011JD016858
Authors
Koffi, Brigitte (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE) Gif-sur-Yvette)
Schulz, Michael (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE) Gif-sur-Yvette)
Breon, Francois-Marie (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE) Gif-sur-Yvette)
Griesfeller, Jan (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE) Gif-sur-Yvette)
Winker, David (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Balkanski, Yves (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE) Gif-sur-Yvette)
Bauer, Susanne (Columbia Univ. New York, NY, United States)
Berntsen, Terje (Oslo Univ. Norway)
Chin, Mian (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Collins, William D. (California Univ., Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Berkeley, CA, United States)
Dentener, Frank (Joint Research Centre of the European Communities Ispra, Italy)
Diehl, Thomas (Universities Space Research Association Columbia, MD, United States)
Easter, Richard (Battelle Pacific Northwest Labs. Richland, WA, United States)
Ghan, Steven (Battelle Pacific Northwest Labs. Richland, WA, United States)
Gimoux, Paul (Princeton Univ. NJ, United States)
Gong, Sunling (Environment Canada Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
Horowitz, Larry W. (Princeton Univ. NJ, United States)
Iversen, Trond (Norwegian Meteorological Inst. Oslo, Norway)
Kirkevag, Alf (Norwegian Meteorological Inst. Oslo, Norway)
Koch, Dorothy (Department of Energy Washington, DC, United States)
Krol, Maarten (Wageningen Univ. Wageningen, Netherlands)
Myhre, Gunnar (Center for International Climate and Environmental Research Oslo, Norway)
Stier, Philip (Oxford Univ. Oxford, United Kingdom)
Takemura, Toshihiko (Kyushu Univ. Fukuoka, Japan)
Date Acquired
May 15, 2014
Publication Date
May 19, 2012
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres
Publisher: AGU
Volume: 117
Issue: D10
Subject Category
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Geophysics
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN8834
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: DE-AC06-76RLO 1830
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
Aerosols and particles
global climate models
remote sensing

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