Aerosol optical and microphysical properties from passive remote sensing during CARES: temporal and spatial changes
Poster PDF
Authors
Connor J. Flynn — University of Oklahoma School of Meteorology
James Barnard — University of Nevada Reno
Richard A. Ferrare — NASA - Langley Research Center
Evgueni Kassianov — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Mikhail S. Pekour — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Category
Aerosol Properties
Description
One of the main purposes of the recently conducted Carbonaceous Aerosol and Radiative Effects Study (CARES) is to investigate the spatio-temporal changes of aerosol optical properties in the central part of California during late May and June. In this presentation we focus on column-integrated aerosol optical properties, such as aerosol optical depth (AOD), single-scattering albedo (SSA), and asymmetry parameter (AP). These column properties are retrieved from data obtained with ground-based instruments, namely the multifilter rotating shadowband radiometer (MFRSR) and the Cimel sunphotometer. To explore the spatial distribution of aerosol properties, two MFRSRs are deployed at two sites with a mean distance between them of about 30 km. Both the MFRSR- and Cimel-based data capture large diurnal and day-to-day variations of aerosol properties. For example, wide ranges of daily averaged AOD (0.05–0.15) and SSA (0.80–0.98) values at 500 nm are observed. Also, the analysis of the MFRSR and Cimel data suggests that the retrieved aerosol size distribution (SD), and particularly its coarse mode, is characterized by substantial diurnal and day-to-day changes. The coarse mode is sometimes so large that it may exert a powerful influence on the aerosol optical properties. To examine the robustness of the retrieved aerosol properties (SSA, AP, and SD), we compare them with measurements provided by the corresponding in situ ground-based instruments. The results of such comparison will be presented as well.
