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Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Aerosol Properties from Multi-spectral and Multi-angular Aircraft 4STAR Observations: Expected Advantages and Challenges

Conference ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1117/12.974744· OSTI ID:1060134
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The airborne Spectrometer for Sky-Scanning, Sun-Tracking Atmospheric Research (4STAR) is developed to retrieve aerosol microphysical and optical properties from multi-angular and multi-spectral measurements of sky radiance and direct-beam sun transmittance. The necessarily compact design of the 4STAR may cause noticeable apparent enhancement of sky radiance at small scattering angles. We assess the sensitivity of expected 4STAR-based aerosol retrieval to such enhancement by applying the operational AERONET retrieval code and constructed synthetic 4STARlike data. Also, we assess the sensitivity of the broadband fluxes and the direct aerosol radiative forcing to uncertainties in aerosol retrievals associated with the sky radiance enhancement. Our sensitivity study results suggest that the 4STARbased aerosol retrieval has limitations in obtaining detailed information on particle size distribution and scattering phase function. However, these limitations have small impact on the retrieved bulk optical parameters, such as the asymmetry factor (up to 4%, or ±0.02) and single-scattering albedo (up to 2%, or ±0.02), and the calculated direct aerosol radiative forcing (up to 6%, or 2 Wm-2).
Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1060134
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-90262; KP1704010
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

4STAR
aerosol
aircraft
multi-angular
multi-spectral
observations