HR: 08:05h
AN: A11D-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Space-borne Observations of Aerosols
AU: * Kaufman, Y J
EM: kaufman@climate.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: Y.J. Kaufman, code 613.2 NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Tanre, D
EM: Didier.Tanre@univ-lille1.fr
AF: D. Tanre, L.O.A., Bat. P5 U.S.T. de lille, Villeneuve d 'Ascq, 59655 France
AU: Coakley, J A
EM: coakley@coas.oregonstate.edu
AF: J.A. Coakley, Jr., College of Oceanic & Atmospheric Sciences 104 COAS Admin Bldg. Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-5503 United States
AU: Fraser, R S
EM: RSFRASER81@COMCAST.NET
AF: R.S. Fraser, code 613.2 NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AB: As early as 1963, photographs of the twilight horizon from the Vostok-6 spaceship were used by G. V. Rozenberg and V. V. Nikolaeva-Tereshkova to derive profiles of stratospheric aerosols. The launch of the ATS III satellite in 1967 sparked interest in using satellites to observe aerosol emission, transport, and their effects on climate, precipitation and health. The first use of autonomous satellites in aerosol research appears to be by Toby Carlson and Joe Prospero who tracked dust from the Sahara to the Americas in the early `70s using ATS III images. The launch of the calibrated Landsat instrument in 1972 allowed Bob Fraser to perform quantitative analyses of dust column concentrations for individual scenes. GOES launched in 1975 provided hourly data that allowed Walter Lyons and J.C. Dooley in the late 70's to report on the transport of sulfate air pollution which was later followed by estimates of the export of sulfate aerosol from the US to the Atlantic Ocean. With the launch of SAGE in 1979, Pat McCormick and co-workers began long term observations of statospheric aerosols. The launch of TIROS(N) and the AVHRR in 1979 marked the start of concerted efforts by Larry Stowe and his colleagues to produce operationally an aerosol product over oceans from the NOAA polar orbiting satellite. With the launch of the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment scanners in the late 1980's, Sundar Christopher and his colleagues began linking AVHRR-derived aerosol burdens to their effects on the Earth's radiation budget. A remarkable aspect of this early work is that instruments like the AVHRR, Landsat, and GOES imager were not originally designed to perform quantitative estimates of aerosol properties. In fact, corrections for the effects of aerosols in determining ocean reflectances implemented primarily through the work of Howard Gordon, facilitated much improved pictures of chlorophyll in the upper oceans than had been hoped for from CZCS data collected in the late 70's. This evolution of instrumentation, understanding, and interest paralleled a remarkable growth in the number of papers concerning space-borne observations of aerosols, ranging from an average of 3 papers a year in the 1980s to 60 papers in the 1990s and 150 papers after 2000. The last growth came with the availability of data from satellite instruments designed for aerosol measurements, such as, for example, ATSR, POLDER, MODIS, MISR and GLI launched between 1991 and 2004. Nonetheless, the information potential of the reflected sunlight, not to mention the active sensing of aerosols from space-borne lidars, has yet to be realized. Different instruments specialize in different aspects: wide spectral and high spatial resolution (MODIS, GLI), polarization (POLDER), or angular (MISR) properties of the reflected light. Future missions that include full spectral-angular polarimeteric measurements coupled with active sensing from space will continue to provide a wealth of new insights on aerosol properties, transport, and evolution.
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801, 4906)
DE: 1610 Atmosphere (0315, 0325)
DE: 1855 Remote sensing (1640)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005