Estimate of microstructure parameters of the coarsely dispersed aerosol based on their statistical relationships with spectral measurements of the aerosol optical thickness

Author(s):  
V. V. Veretennikov
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chong Shi ◽  
Teruyuki Nakajima

Abstract. Retrieval of aerosol optical properties and water leaving radiance over ocean is changeling since the latter mostly accounts for ~10% of satellite observed signal and can be easily contaminated by the atmospheric scattering. Such an effort would be more difficulty in turbid coastal waters due to the existence of optically complex oceanic substances or high aerosol loading. In an effort to solve such problems, we present an optimization approach for the simultaneous determination of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) and normalized water leaving radiance (nLw) from multi-spectral measurements. In this algorithm, a coupled atmosphere-ocean radiative transfer model combined with a comprehensive bio-optical oceanic module is used to jointly simulate the satellite observed reflectance at the top of atmosphere and water leaving radiance just above the ocean surface. Then a full-physical nonlinear optimization method is adopted to retrieve AOT and nLw in one step. The algorithm is validated using Aerosol Robotic Network Ocean Color (AERONET-OC) products selected from eight OC sites distributed over different waters, consisting of observation cases covered both in and out of sun glint from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument. Results show a good consistency between retrieved and in situ measurements in each site. It is demonstrated that more accurate AOT are determined based on the simultaneous retrieval method, particularly in shorter wavelengths and sun glint conditions, where the averaged percentage difference (APD) of retrieved AOT generally reduce by approximate 10 % in visible bands compared with those derived from the standard atmospheric correction (AC) scheme. It is caused that all the spectral measurements can be used jointly to increase the information content in the inversion of AOT and the wind speed is also simultaneously retrieved to compensate the specular reflectance error estimated from the rough ocean surface model. For the retrieval of nLw, over atmospheric correction can be avoided to have a significant improvement for the inversion of nLw at 412 nm. Furthermore, generally better estimates of band ratios of nLw(443)/nLw(554) and nLw(488)/nLw(554), which are employed in the inversion of chlorophyll a concentration (Chl), are obtained using simultaneous retrieval approach with less root mean square errors and relative differences than those derived from the standard AC approach in comparison to the AERONET-OC products, as a result that the APD value of retrieved Chl decreases by about 5 %. On the other hand, the standard AC scheme yields a more accurate retrieval of nLw at 488 nm, prompting a further optimization of oceanic bio-optical module of current model.


2017 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 290-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xing Yan ◽  
Wenzhong Shi ◽  
Zhanqing Li ◽  
Zhengqiang Li ◽  
Nana Luo ◽  
...  

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (19) ◽  
pp. 5061-5079 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Lauer ◽  
V. Eyring ◽  
J. Hendricks ◽  
P. Jöckel ◽  
U. Lohmann

Abstract. International shipping contributes significantly to the fuel consumption of all transport related activities. Specific emissions of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) per kg of fuel emitted are higher than for road transport or aviation. Besides gaseous pollutants, ships also emit various types of particulate matter. The aerosol impacts the Earth's radiation budget directly by scattering and absorbing the solar and thermal radiation and indirectly by changing cloud properties. Here we use ECHAM5/MESSy1-MADE, a global climate model with detailed aerosol and cloud microphysics to study the climate impacts of international shipping. The simulations show that emissions from ships significantly increase the cloud droplet number concentration of low marine water clouds by up to 5% to 30% depending on the ship emission inventory and the geographic region. Whereas the cloud liquid water content remains nearly unchanged in these simulations, effective radii of cloud droplets decrease, leading to cloud optical thickness increase of up to 5–10%. The sensitivity of the results is estimated by using three different emission inventories for present-day conditions. The sensitivity analysis reveals that shipping contributes to 2.3% to 3.6% of the total sulfate burden and 0.4% to 1.4% to the total black carbon burden in the year 2000 on the global mean. In addition to changes in aerosol chemical composition, shipping increases the aerosol number concentration, e.g. up to 25% in the size range of the accumulation mode (typically >0.1 μm) over the Atlantic. The total aerosol optical thickness over the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Northeastern Pacific increases by up to 8–10% depending on the emission inventory. Changes in aerosol optical thickness caused by shipping induced modification of aerosol particle number concentration and chemical composition lead to a change in the shortwave radiation budget at the top of the atmosphere (ToA) under clear-sky condition of about −0.014 W/m² to −0.038 W/m² for a global annual average. The corresponding all-sky direct aerosol forcing ranges between −0.011 W/m² and −0.013 W/m². The indirect aerosol effect of ships on climate is found to be far larger than previously estimated. An indirect radiative effect of −0.19 W/m² to −0.60 W/m² (a change in the atmospheric shortwave radiative flux at ToA) is calculated here, contributing 17% to 39% of the total indirect effect of anthropogenic aerosols. This contribution is high because ship emissions are released in regions with frequent low marine clouds in an otherwise clean environment. In addition, the potential impact of particulate matter on the radiation budget is larger over the dark ocean surface than over polluted regions over land.


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