Soon Chang Yoon

Atmospheric brown clouds: Hemispherical and regional variations in long-range transport, absorption, and radiative forcing

polluted oceanic regions, the EC mass exceeds 0.5 m gm 3 , the OC mass exceeds 2 m gm 3 and sulfate mass exceeds 10 m gm 3 from the surface to 3 km. The brown clouds also have strong seasonal dependence. In the tropics the seasonal dependence is driven by pollution accumulating during the dry seasons, December to February in Northern Hemisphere tropics and June to August in Southern Hemisphere tropics. In the extratropics the pollution peaks during the summer. The brown cloud problem is not restricted to the tropical regions. Over the eastern half of US and western Europe the AODs exceeds 0.2 and absorption AODs exceed 0.02. Brown clouds also extend well into the western Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean reaching as far south as 60S and the eastern Atlantic Ocean. The largest total SO2 emission occurs over China and US, while SO2 emission per unit surface area is maximum over Germany and England. The largest total EC and OC emissions occur over China, but the largest OC emission per unit surface area occur over India. As a result, the maximum negative annual mean TOA direct forcing is over India and Germany. The surface annual-diurnal mean dimming over the regional hot spots is of the order of 10 W m 2 and 20 W m 2 over megacity hotpots.

Ground‐based network observation of Asian dust events of April 1998 in east Asia

We coordinated a ground-based network that has been in use since 1997 to observe Asian dust during springtime. Huge Asian dust events that occurred in the middle of April 1998 were captured by this network. In this paper we present the organization of the network; a description of the instruments, including the lidar, sky radiometer, and optical particle counter; and the results of the observation, and offer discussions regarding the transport mechanism of Asian dust in east Asia using an on-line tracer model. We discussed the time series of the surface concentration and the height distribution of the dust. A cutoff cyclone generated during the dust episode was responsible for trapping and sedimentation during the transportation of the Asian dust, particularly in the southern parts of China and Japan. Horizontal dust images derived from NOAA/AVHRR clearly revealed the structure of the vortex. The lidar network observation confirmed the general pattern of dust height distribution in this event; the height of the major dust layer was about 3 km over Japan but was higher (4 to 5 km) in Seoul and Hefei. A thin dust layer in the upper troposphere was also commonly observed in Hefei and Japan. Evidence of the coexistence of dust and cirrus was shown by the polarization lidar. The lidar network observation of Asian dust and satellite remote sensing provide key information for the study of the transport mechanism of Asian dust. Further extension of the lidar network toward the interior of the continent and the Pacific Rim would reveal the greater global mechanism of the transportation.

Overview of the Atmospheric Brown Cloud East Asian Regional Experiment 2005 and a study of the aerosol direct radiative forcing in east Asia

2005 which is smaller in magnitude than in the APMEX region, mainly because of large cloud fraction in this region (0.70 at Gosan versus 0.51 at Hanimadhoo in the ISCCP total cloud fraction). We suggest there may be an underestimation of the forcing due to overestimation of the simulated cloudiness and aerosol scale height. On the other hand, the possible error in the simulated surface albedo may cause an overestimation of the magnitude of the forcing over the land area. We also propose simple formulae for shortwave radiative forcing to understand the role of aerosol parameters and surface condition to determine the aerosol forcing. Such simple formulae are useful to check the consistency among the observed quantities.

Aerosol optical properties over east Asia determined from ground-based sky radiation measurements

measurements of sky radiation at Mandalgovi, Dunhuang, Yinchuan, and Sri-Samrong sites of the Skyradiometer Network (SKYNET). Also included were sky radiation measurements at Anmyon, Gosan in Korea, and Amami-Oshima in Japan during April for examining optical properties of Asian dust. Results show that the seasonal average of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) generally exhibits a maximum in spring and a minimum in autumn over east Asia. At Sri-Samrong and Yinchuan, relatively distinct seasonal cycles are noted, in comparison to the arid desert regions of Dunhuang and Mandalgovi. In general, aerosol size distributions are characterized by a bimodal pattern, with a fine mode around 0.2 mm and a coarse mode around 2� 5 mm. Similar to AOT and a, volume spectra are also much dependent on geographical location and season. Dunhuang mostly shows coarse mode particles in all seasons, while Mandalgovi and Sri-Samrong show large seasonal variations in the total volume of fine mode particles. The single scattering albedos of dust particles over east Asia are around 0.9 at 0.5 mm, which are larger than the previously known values of 0.63‐0.89 but similar to those found in the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) analysis. It is noted that the optical properties of Asian dust around Korea and Japan are quite similar to those found in dust source regions such as Dunhuang and Mandalgovi. However, the single scattering albedo appears to be smaller than those observed in Dunhuang and Mandalgovi. Furthermore, single scattering albedo tends to become smaller during the dust outbreak period. Considering that aerosols in Korean and Japanese areas are much influenced by anthropogenic aerosols emitted in China particularly under the westerly conditions, the mixing processes between different aerosol species may be the cause of the different optical properties of Asian dust. INDEX TERMS: 0305 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801); 0322 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Constituent sources and sinks; 3309 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Climatology (1620); 3359 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Radiative processes; KEYWORDS: aerosol optical property, sky radiation measurements, Asian dust Citation: Kim, D.-H., B.-J. Sohn, T. Nakajima, T. Takamura, T. Takemura, B.-C. Choi, and S.-C. Yoon (2004), Aerosol optical properties over east Asia determined from ground-based sky radiation measurements, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D02209,

Lidar network observations of tropospheric aerosols

Observations of tropospheric aerosols (mineral dust, air-pollution aerosols, etc.) and clouds are being conducted using a network of two-wavelength (1064nm, 532nm) polarization (532nm) lidars in the East Asian region. Currently, the lidars are operated continuously at 23 locations in Japan, Korea, China, Mongolia and Thailand. A real-time data processing system was developed for the network, and the data products such as the attenuated backscatter coefficients and the estimated extinction coefficients for non-spherical and spherical aerosols are generated automatically for online network stations. The data are used in the real-time monitoring of Asian dust as well as in the studies of regional air pollution and climate change.

Environmental snapshots from ACE-Asia

On five occasions spanning the Asian Pacific Regional Aerosol Characterization Experiment (ACE-Asia) field campaign in spring 2001, the Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer spaceborne instrument took data coincident with high-quality observations by instruments on two or more surface and airborne platforms. The cases capture a range of clean, polluted, and dusty aerosol conditions. With a three-stage optical modeling process, we synthesize the data from over 40 field instruments into layer-by-layer environmental snapshots that summarize what we know about the atmospheric and surface states at key locations during each event. We compare related measurements and discuss the implications of apparent discrepancies, at a level of detail appropriate for satellite retrieval algorithm and aerosol transport model validation. Aerosols within a few kilometers of the surface were composed primarily of pollution and Asian dust mixtures, as expected. Medium- and coarse-mode particle size distributions varied little among the events studied; however, column aerosol optical depth changed by more than a factor of 4, and the near-surface proportion of dust ranged between 25% and 50%. The amount of absorbing material in the submicron fraction was highest when near-surface winds crossed Beijing and the Korean Peninsula and was considerably lower for all other cases. Having simultaneous single-scattering albedo measurements at more than one wavelength would significantly reduce the remaining optical model uncertainties. The consistency of component particle microphysical properties among the five events, even in this relatively complex aerosol environment, suggests that global, satellite-derived maps of aerosol optical depth and aerosol mixture (air-mass-type) extent, combined with targeted in situ component microphysical property measurements, can provide a detailed global picture of aerosol behavior.

Factors for inconsistent aerosol single scattering albedo between SKYNET and AERONET

SKYNET and Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) retrieved aerosol single scattering albedo (SSA) values of four sites, Chiba (Japan), Pune (India), Valencia (Spain), and Seoul (Korea), were compared to understand the factors behind often noted large SSA differences between them. SKYNET and AERONET algorithms are found to produce nearly same SSAs for similarity in input data, suggesting that SSA differences between them are primarily due to quality of input data due to different calibration and/or observation protocols as well as difference in quality assurance criteria. The most plausible reason for high SSAs in SKYNET is found to be underestimated calibration constant for sky radiance (ΔΩ). The disk scan method (scan area: 1° × 1° area of solar disk) of SKYNET is noted to produce stable wavelength-dependent ΔΩ values in comparison to those determined from the integrating sphere used by AERONET to calibrate sky radiance. Aerosol optical thickness (AOT) difference between them can be the next important factor for their SSA difference, if AOTs between them are not consistent. Inconsistent values of surface albedo while analyzing data of SKYNET and AERONET can also bring SSA difference between them, but the effect of surface albedo is secondary. The aerosol nonsphericity effect is found to be less important for SSA difference between these two networks.

A comparison of satellite- and ground-based aerosol extinction profile and AOD

We present a systematic comparison of different analyses of satellite-retrieved extinction profile based on the satellite - measurements with those derived from ground based Lidar. Also compared is the Lidar-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) with passive sensor derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) satellite data are used as these comparisons and that is a bit complex because spatial and temporal coincident data for clear sky conditions are needed for its comparisons to other Lidar data. Although limitation of the number of coincident dataset and expected errors are unknown, the satellite based aerosol extinction coefficients agree to those measured by ground-based Lidar within 0.02km-1. The two different satellite-derived AODs differ by 30% in comparison to the average of the coincident.

Asian Dust particles impacts on air quality and radiative forcing over Korea

Asian Dust particles originated from the deserts and loess areas of the Asian continent are often transported over Korea, Japan, and the North Pacific Ocean during spring season. Major air mass pathway of Asian dust storm to Korea is from either north-western Chinese desert regions or north-eastern Chinese sandy areas. The local atmospheric environment condition in Korea is greatly impacted by Asian dust particles transported by prevailing westerly wind. Since these Asian dust particles pass through heavily populated urban and industrial areas in China before it reach Korean peninsular, their physical, chemical and optical properties vary depending on the atmospheric conditions and air mass pathway characteristics. An integrated system approach has been adopted at the Advanced Environment Monitoring Research Center (ADEMRC), Gwangju Institute Science and Technology (GIST), Korea for effective monitoring of atmospheric aerosols utilizing various in-situ and optical remote sensing methods, which include a multi-channel Raman LIDAR system, sunphotometer, satellite, and in-situ instruments. Results from recent studies on impacts of Asian dust particles on local air quality and radiative forcing over Korea are summarized here.