HR: 0800h
AN: A41A-0019    [Abstracts]
TI: Radiative Forcing at the Surface by Clouds, Aerosols, and Water Vapor Over Tropical Oceans
AU: * Key, E
EM: Erica.Key@cetp.ipsl.fr
AF: CETP, IPSL, 10/12 Avenue de l'Europe, Velizy-Villacoublay, 78140, France
AU: Minnett, P
EM: pminnett@rsmas.miami.edu
AF: University of Miami, RSMAS, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149, United States
AU: Szczodrak, G
EM: gszczodrak@rsmas.miami.edu
AF: University of Miami, RSMAS, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149, United States
AU: Caniaux, G
EM: guy.caniaux@meteo.fr
AF: CNRM, Meteo-France, 42 Avenue Gustave Coriolis, Toulouse, 31057, France
AU: Voss, K
EM: voss@physics.miami.edu
AF: University of Miami, Physics Department, Miami, FL 33124, United States
AU: Bourras, D
EM: Denis.Bourras@cetp.ipsl.fr
AF: CETP, IPSL, 10/12 Avenue de l'Europe, Velizy-Villacoublay, 78140, France
AB: Data from recent campaigns conducted in the tropical Atlantic and Indian Oceans provide thorough testbeds for determining the contribution of clouds, aerosols, and water vapor to surface radiative forcing, with particular focus on areas of extreme SST gradients. Oceanographic cruises conducted during the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis included sampling monsoon onset in the Gulf of Guinea, which was characterized nearshore by rain and haze, the latter being a combination of water vapor and continental and pollution aerosols. Offshore and nearer to the equatorial cold tongue, the ITCZ was the dominant northern hemisphere cloud feature, while drier, cooler air masses existed south of the equator. The R/V Ronald H. Brown, operating a north-south transect along 23 W, encountered both atmospheric tropical wave conditions as well as dry Saharan Air Layers. In the Indian Ocean, the N/O Le Suroit occupied a point station near a positive SST anomaly to observe the onset of convection associated with the MJO and strong diurnal warming signatures. Combining radiative and turbulent flux data with measured and modeled profiles of the marine and atmospheric boundary layer, the evolution and interaction of the total air-sea column is observed. Particular emphasis is placed on the radiative forcing of clouds, aerosols, and water vapor on the sea surface skin temperature, towards the improvement of current diurnal warming models, which simplify atmospheric radiative effects into a general cloud parameter.
DE: 0312 Air/sea constituent fluxes (3339, 4504)
DE: 0321 Cloud/radiation interaction
DE: 3310 Clouds and cloud feedbacks
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
DE: 3374 Tropical meteorology
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting