HR: 11:05h
AN: A22B-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Intercomparisons Between Simulated Optical Properties of Smoke in Southern Africa During SAFARI 2000 and Satellite and Ground-Based Observations
AU: * Matichuk, R I
EM: matichuk@lasp.colorado.edu
AF: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado, Campus Box 311, Boulder, CO 80309 United States
AU: Colarco, P R
EM: peter.r.colarco@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 613.3, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Smith, J A
EM: jamison.smith@lasp.colorado.edu
AF: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado, Campus Box 311, Boulder, CO 80309 United States
AU: Toon, O B
EM: btoon@lasp.colorado.edu
AF: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado, Campus Box 311, Boulder, CO 80309 United States
AB: We investigate the transport and optical properties of biomass burning aerosols using an offline three-dimensional microphysical and transport model. In this study, we compare the model results to remote sensing measurements collected during the Southern African Regional Science Initiative campaign (SAFARI 2000). Our model is initialized with sun photometer retrieved aerosol particle size distributions, and monthly mean, satellite derived smoke emissions. Here we assume the smoke is injected uniformly with pressure in the planetary boundary layer. Modeled smoke optical properties are similar to ground-based (AERONET) and satellite (MODIS, MISR, and EP-TOMS) observations made over source regions in southern Africa. We find that the modeled daily and monthly mean AOT and SSA compare fairly well to AERONET retrievals. However, the model particle size distribution is not similar to AERONET retrievals at radius sizes greater than 3 microns. This may be a result of the particle density, high deposition velocities for the coarse-sized particles, and/or the contribution from other aerosol constituents (i.e. dust and sea salt) that are not modeled in this study. Both the model and satellite data show that the dominant transport of smoke during September 2000 was westward toward the Atlantic Ocean. However, the satellite observations show a peak smoke optical depth over the ocean, which is not born out by the model. This may be a result of the contribution from other aerosol constituents, or the satellite retrievals may be making poor assumptions in their retrieval schemes. The results from this study will be useful in future applications related to the transport and optical properties of biomass burning aerosols, and the interpretation of remote sensing measurements.
DE: 0300 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801, 4906)
DE: 0368 Troposphere: constituent transport and chemistry
DE: 1640 Remote sensing (1855)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005