HR: 0830h
AN: A21D-1007    [PDF]
TI: Applications of TOMS Aerosol Data in Climate Forcing Studies
AU: * Hsu, N
EM: hsu@wrabbit.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: GEST/UMBC, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 916, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Herman, J R
EM: herman@tparty.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 916, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Seftor, C J
EM: Colin_J_Seftor@raytheon.com
AF: Raytheon ITSS, 1616 McCormick Drive, Upper Marlboro, MD 20774 United States
AB: Measurements from the TOMS series of instruments not only provided the foundation for the study of the effects of ozone depletion on climate, but they have also provided a way to look at the climatic effects of aerosol. By combining measurements of the TOMS aerosol data with measurements of shortwave and longwave radiation from ERBE and CERES, we investigated the effects aerosols have on the Earth's radiation budget over both land and ocean. Specifically, we found that Saharan and Asian dust provided a cooling effect at the top of atmosphere over ocean. However, the radiative effect of mineral dust is more complicated over land and the sign of the forcing depends on the dust sources and the reflectance of the underlying surface. As opposed to dust, we found that smoke aerosols always excert a cooling effect of radiation at the top of the atmosperhere over both land and ocean. We then extended our studies by combining TOMS aerosol index and CERES radiation data with reflectivity measurements from either TOMS or SeaWiFS to determine how smoke aerosols modify radiative forcing in the presence of clouds. We found that the presence of smoke aerosols, when mixed with clouds or on top of the clouds, strongly modified the radiative energy balance in the atmosphere-cloud system. In this poster we will present the techniques we developed, details on our results, and plans for future studies.
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801)
DE: 0345 Pollution--urban and regional (0305)
DE: 0365 Troposphere--composition and chemistry
DE: 0368 Troposphere--constituent transport and chemistry
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting