J. Vanderlei Martins

Global aerosol climatology from the MODIS satellite sensors

The recently released Collection 5 MODIS aerosol products provide a consistent record of the Earths aerosol system. Comparison with ground-based AERONET observations of aerosol optical depth (AOD) we find that Collection 5 MODIS aerosol products estimate AOD to within expected accuracy more than 60% of the time over ocean and more than 72% of the time over land. This is similar to previous results for ocean, and better than the previous results for land. However, the new Collection introduces a 0.01 5 offset between the Terra and Aqua global mean AOD over ocean, where none existed previously. Aqua conforms to previous values and expectations while Terra is high. The cause of the offset is unknown, but changes to calibration are a possible explanation. We focus the climatological analysis on the better understood Aqua retrievals. We find that global mean AOD at 550 nm over oceans is 0.13 and over land 0.19. AOD in situations with 80% cloud fraction are twice the global mean values, although such situations occur only 2% of the time over ocean and less than 1% of the time over land. There is no drastic change in aerosol particle size associated with these very cloudy situations. Regionally, aerosol amounts vary from polluted areas such as East Asia and India, to the cleanest regions such as Australia and the northern continents. In almost all oceans fine mode aerosol dominates over dust, except in the tropical Atlantic downwind of the Sahara and in some months the Arabian Sea.

Physical, chemical, and optical properties of regional hazes dominated by smoke in Brazil

Gas and particle measurements are described for optically thick regional hazes, dominated by aged smoke from biomass burning, in the cerrado and rain forested regions of Brazil. The hazes tended to be evenly mixed from the surface to the trade wind inversion at 3–4 km in altitude. The properties of aged gases and particles in the regional hazes were significantly different from those of young smoke (<4 min old). As the smoke aged, the total amount of carbon in non-methane hydrocarbon species (C<11) was depleted by about one third due to transformations into CO2, CO, and reactive molecules, and removed by dry deposition and/or by conversion to particulate matter. As the smoke particles aged, their sizes increased significantly due to coagulation and mass growth by secondary species (e.g., ammonium, organic acids and sulfate). During aging, condensation and gas-to-particle conversion of inorganic and organic vapors increased the aerosol mass by ∼20–40%. One third to one half of this mass growth likely occurred in the first few hours of aging due to the condensation of large organic molecules. The remaining mass growth was probably associated with photochemical and cloud-processing mechanisms operating over several days. Changes in particle sizes and compositions during aging had a large impact on the optical properties of the aerosol. Over a 2 to 4 day period, the fine particle mass-scattering efficiency and single-scattering albedo increased by 1 m2 g−1, and ∼0.06, respectively. Conversely, the Angstrom coefficient, backscatter ratio, and mass absorption efficiency decreased significantly with age.

Smoke Invigoration Versus Inhibition of Clouds over the Amazon

The effect of anthropogenic aerosols on clouds is one of the most important and least understood aspects of human-induced climate change. Small changes in the amount of cloud coverage can produce a climate forcing equivalent in magnitude and opposite in sign to that caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gases, and changes in cloud height can shift the effect of clouds from cooling to warming. Focusing on the Amazon, we show a smooth transition between two opposing effects of aerosols on clouds: the microphysical and the radiative. We show how a feedback between the optical properties of aerosols and the cloud fraction can modify the aerosol forcing, changing the total radiative energy and redistributing it over the atmospheric column.

Effects of black carbon content, particle size, and mixing on light absorption by aerosols from biomass burning in Brazil

Black carbon mass absorption efficiencies of smoke particles were measured for various types of biomass fires during the Smoke, Clouds, and Radiation-Brazil (SCAR-B) experiment using thermal evolution measurements for black carbon and optical absorption methods. The obtained results range between 5.2 and 19.3 m2 g−1 with an average value of 12.1±4.0 m2 g−1. Particle size distributions and optical properties were also measured to provide a full set of physical parameters for modeling calculations. Mie theory was used to model the optical properties of the particles assuming both internal and external mixtures coupling the modeling calculations with the experimental results obtained during the campaign. For internal mixing, a particle model with a layered structure consisting of an absorbing black carbon core, surrounded by a nonabsorbing shell, was assumed. Also, for internal mixing, a discrete dipole approximation code was used to simulate packed soot clusters commonly found in electron microscopy photographs of filters collected during the experiment. The modeled results for layered spheres and packed clusters explain black carbon mass absorption coefficients up to values of about 25 m2 g−1, but measurements show even higher values which were correlated with the chemical composition and characteristics of the structure of the particles. Unrealistic high values of black carbon absorption efficiencies were linked to high concentrations of K, which influence the volatilization of black carbon (BC) at lower temperatures than usual, possibly causing artifacts in the determination of BC by thermal technique. The modeling results are compared with nephelometer and light absorption measurements.

On the twilight zone between clouds and aerosols

[1]xa0Cloud and aerosols interact and form a complex system leading to high uncertainty in understanding climate change. To simplify this non-linear system it is customary to distinguish between “cloudy” and “cloud-free” areas and measure them separately. However, we find that clouds are surrounded by a “twilight zone” – a belt of forming and evaporating cloud fragments and hydrated aerosols extending tens of kilometers from the clouds into the so-called cloud-free zone. The gradual transition from cloudy to dry atmosphere is proportional to the aerosol loading, suggesting an additional aerosol effect on the composition and radiation fluxes of the atmosphere. Using AERONET data, we find that the measured aerosol optical depth is higher by 13% ± 2% in the visible and 22% ± 2% in the NIR in measurements taken near clouds relative to its value in the measurements taken before or after, and that 30%−60% of the free atmosphere is affected by this phenomenon.

The Bodélé depression: a single spot in the Sahara that provides most of the mineral dust to the Amazon forest

About 40 million tons of dust are transported annually from the Sahara to the Amazon basin. Saharan dust has been proposed to be the main mineral source that fertilizes the Amazon basin, generating a dependence of the health and productivity of the rain forest on dust supply from the Sahara. Here we show that about half of the annual dust supply to the Amazon basin is emitted from a single source: the Bodele depression located northeast of Lake Chad, approximately 0.5% of the size of the Amazon or 0.2% of the Sahara. Placed in a narrow path between two mountain chains that direct and accelerate the surface winds over the depression, the Bodele emits dust on 40% of the winter days, averaging more than 0.7 million tons of dust per day

Comparisons of techniques for measuring shortwave absorption and black carbon content of aerosols from biomass burning in Brazil

Six methods for measuring the shortwave absorption and/or black carbon (BC) content of aerosols from biomass burning were compared during the Smoke, Clouds, and Radiation-Brazil (SCAR-B) experiment. The methods were the optical extinction cell (OEC), integrating plate (IP), optical reflectance (OR), particle soot/absorption photometer (PSAP), thermal evolution (TE), and remote sensing (RS). Comparisons were made for individual smoke plumes and for regional hazes dominated by smoke. Taking the OEC as a primary standard, measurements of the absorption coefficient (σa) showed that the OR method had the lowest uncertainty (17%) in σa. The other optical methods had uncertainties ranging from 20 to 40%. However, with sufficient sample size, the values of σa derived from the optical methods converged to within 20% of each other. For biomass burning aerosols in regional hazes over Brazil, this led to systematic differences of ±0.02 in the values of the single-scattering albedo derived from the various in situ techniques. It was found also that the BC content of the aerosol and σa were poorly correlated. This is likely due to a large uncertainty in the BC content of the aerosol measured by TE, and/or a high variability in the mass absorption efficiency of BC in biomass burning aerosol. Hence there is a high uncertainty in inferring σa from the BC content of smoke aerosol.

Sphericity and morphology of smoke particles from biomass burning in Brazil

The degree of nonsphericity of smoke particles from biomass burning in Brazil was measured aboard the University of Washington C-131A aircraft during the Smoke, Clouds, and Radiation-Brazil (SCAR-B) project for several regions, types of fuel, and combustion. The nonsphericity (αo) of the particles was obtained from electrooptical light-scattering measurements, using an aerosol asymmetry analyzer, and from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the particles. The electrooptical measurements provide a measure of the nonsphericity based on the difference between the light scattering coefficient for aligned and randomly oriented particles. The SEM photographs provide information on the geometric shapes of the particles. The maximum value of αo obtained during the SCAR-B for biomass burning in Brazil was below 13%. The degree of nonsphericity of the particles is shown to be related to the combustion efficiency, the mass absorption efficiency, and the fraction of black carbon to total particle mass. It is concluded after smoke particles from biomass burning in Brazil have been in the atmosphere for more than about 1 hour that the spherical approximation (and therefore Mie theory) is reasonably valid for estimating the physical and optical properties of the particles.

Remote sensing of subpixel snow cover using 0.66 and 2.1 μm channels

[1]xa0Hydrologic models increasingly require knowledge of the amount of snow cover within a pixel in order to provide accurate estimates of snow covered area. Present methods for remote sensing of subpixel snow cover require knowledge of the spectral reflectance properties of the snow as well as the background material, making these methods difficult to apply globally. Similar problems were encountered in global remote sensing of aerosol particles over varying land terrain. Since both aerosol and snow are dark at 2.1 μm, we suggest a method for sub-pixel snow mapping based on experience with remote sensing of aerosols. Here the pixel reflectance at 2.1 μm is used to estimate the reflectance of the non-snow regions in the pixel at 0.66 μm. The difference between the total pixel brightness at 0.66 μm and the derived brightness of the same pixel without the snow is used to estimate the sub-pixel snow cover with an error usually < ±0.05.

Estimating glaciation temperature of deep convective clouds with remote sensing data

[1]xa0Major uncertainties exist for observing and modeling ice content inside deep convective clouds (DCC). One of the difficulties has been the lack of characterization of vertical profiles of cloud hydrometeor phase. Here we propose a technique to estimate the DCC glaciation temperature using passive remote sensing data. It is based on a conceptual model of vertical hydrometeor size profiles inside DCCs. Estimates from the technique agree well with our general understanding of the problem. Furthermore, the link between vertical profiles of cloud particle size and hydrometeor thermodynamic phase is confirmed by a 3-D cloud retrieval technique. The technique is applied to aircraft measurements of cloud side reflectance and the result was compared favorably with an independent retrieval of thermodynamic phase based on different refractive indices at 2.13 μm and 2.25 μm. Possible applications of the technique are discussed.