HR: 09:00h
AN: A21E-05    [Abstracts]
TI: Internally Consistent MODIS Estimate of Aerosol Clear-Sky Radiative Effect Over the Global Oceans
AU: * Remer, L A
EM: Lorraine.A.Remer@nasa.gov
AF: Laboratory for Atmospheres, code 913, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Kaufman, Y J
EM: Yoram.J.Kaufman@nasa.gov
AF: Laboratory for Atmospheres, code 913, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AB: Modern satellite remote sensing, and in particular the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), offers a measurement-based pathway to estimate global aerosol radiative effects and aerosol radiative forcing. Over the oceans, MODIS retrieves the total aerosol optical thickness, but also reports which combination of the 9 different aerosol models was used to obtain the retrieval. Each of the 9 models is characterized by a size distribution and complex refractive index, which through Mie calculations correspond to a unique set of single scattering albedo, assymetry parameter and spectral extinction for each model. The combination of these sets of optical parameters weighted by the optical thickness attributed to each model in the retrieval produces the best fit to the observed radiances at the top of the atmosphere. Thus the MODIS ocean aerosol retrieval provides us with (1) An observed distribution of global aerosol loading, and (2) An internally-consistent, observed, distribution of aerosol optical models that when used in combination will best represent the radiances at the top of the atmosphere. We use these two observed global distributions to initialize the column climate model by Chou and Suarez to calculate the aerosol radiative effect at top of the atmosphere and the radiative efficiency of the aerosols over the global oceans. We apply the analysis to 3 years of MODIS retrievals from the Terra satellite and produce global and regional, seasonally varying, estimates of aerosol radiative effect over the clear-sky oceans.
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
DE: 1610 Atmosphere (0315, 0325)
DE: 1640 Remote sensing
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting