HR: 1340h
AN: A33B-0900    [Abstracts]
TI: A Comparative Study of Aerosol Properties Measured by the SAGE II and SAGE III Experiments
AU: * Yue, G K
EM: Glenn.K.Yue@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Langley Research Center, 100 NASA Road, Hampton, VA 23681 United States
AU: Wang, P
EM: p.wang@larc.nasa.gov
AF: Science And Technology Corp., 10 Basil Sawyer Dr., Hampton, VA 23666 United States
AB: SAGE II and SAGE III are two currently operating experiments designed to measure aerosol extinction coefficients and concentrations of trace gases in the atmosphere by using the techniques of solar and/or lunar occultation. Since February 2002, there are occasions when measurement locations for both experiments are nearly coincident, thereby providing opportunities for a measurement comparison. In this paper, the coincidences in the months from February 2002 to early 2005 are identified, and the methods for retrieving aerosol integral and average properties from experimental data are presented. Aerosol properties, including extinctions, optical depths, surface area densities, volume densities and effective radii measured by SAGE II and SAGE III at these coincidences are compared. It was found that in the main layer of stratospheric aerosols, between about 18 to 26 km, the differences are less than about 30%. Larger differences are shown at altitudes near the tropopause and around 30 km. The wavelegth dependence of discrepancy in extinctions and the contribution to the differences in aerosol properties measured by two experiments are also discussed.
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801, 4906)
DE: 0340 Middle atmosphere: composition and chemistry
DE: 0394 Instruments and techniques
DE: 0399 General or miscellaneous
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005