HR: 0800h
AN: A11C-0063    [Abstracts]
TI: The Effect of Dust Storm on Deep Convection over the Tropical North Atlantic
AU: * Wong, S
EM: swong@atmos.umd.edu
AF: ESSIC, University of Maryland, College Park, 2207 Computer Science Building #224, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AU: Dessler, A E
EM: dessler@atmos.umd.edu
AF: ESSIC, University of Maryland, College Park, 2207 Computer Science Building #224, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AB: The effect of the Saharan mineral dust on deep convection over the tropical North Atlantic were investigated by anlayzing Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) level-2 retrievals. Brightness temperature at 11 $\mu$m were used to indicate the occurrence of deep convection and the tropospheric aerosol loading was represented by the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) at 0.55 $\mu$m. Probability distribution functions (PDFs) of the brightness temperature were constructed for a region offshore the African west coast for August-September 2002, when dust was frequently blown off the Saharan desert and transported across the North Atlantic. For conditions of high aerosol loading (AOT $>$ 0.8), the frequency of brightness temperatures less than 230 K was reduced by a factor of 5-6 from the value associated with conditions of low aerosol loading (AOT $<$ 0.5). The atmospheric effect of the aerosols lasts at least one day after the passage of the aerosols.
DE: 1620 Climate dynamics (3309)
DE: 1640 Remote sensing
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801)
DE: 0320 Cloud physics and chemistry
DE: 0345 Pollution--urban and regional (0305)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting