HR: 14:00h
AN: A13F-02 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Progress and Challenge in Using Satellite Remote Sensing Measurements for Quantifying the Aerosol Direct Radiative Forcing
AU: * Yu, H
EM: Hongbin.Yu@nasa.gov
AF: University of Maryland Baltimore County, 5523 Research Park Drive, Suite 320, Baltimore, MD 21228, United States
AU: * Yu, H
EM: Hongbin.Yu@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA GSFC Code 613.2, Greenbellt, MD 20771, United States
AB: Over the past decade, satellite aerosol retrievals have become increasingly sophisticated. Now, passive satellite sensors measure the angular dependence of polarization and radiance in multiple wavelengths in the ultraviolet through the infrared at fine temporal and spatial resolution. From these observations, retrieved aerosol products include not only optical depth at one wavelength, but spectral optical depth and particle size over both ocean and land, as well as more direct measurements of polarization and phase function. Complementary to the passive sensors, active remote sensing from space is also making promising progress. Furthermore, the constellation of six afternoon-overpass spacecrafts, so-called A-Train makes it possible for the first time to conduct near simultaneous measurements of aerosols, clouds, and radiative fluxes in multiple dimensions with sensors with complementary capabilities. As demonstrated in recent studies, the high accuracy of aerosol products from new and enhanced sensors, together with improvements in characterizing the earth's surface and clouds, has helped to reduce the uncertainties associated with the direct radiative effect by both natural and anthropogenic aerosols. Although satellite instruments do not measure the aerosol chemical composition needed to discriminate anthropogenic from natural aerosol components, the retrieved aerosol size parameters (e.g., fine-mode fraction) provides a feasible way to conduct measurement-based estimates of the radiative forcing of anthropogenic aerosols because anthropogenic aerosols are predominately submicron. In this talk, I will review recent progress in such estimates and discuss possibilities and challenges of using emerging A-Train data to improve estimates of the aerosol direct radiative forcing.
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801, 4906)
DE: 0478 Pollution: urban, regional and global (0345, 4251)
DE: 3305 Climate change and variability (1616, 1635, 3309, 4215, 4513)
DE: 3359 Radiative processes
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting