The Vertical Distribution of Aerosols Over the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Southern Great Plains Site Measured versus Modeled

Conference · Fri Mar 18 04:00:00 EST 2005

OSTI ID:841472

Ferrare, R; Turner, D D; Clayton, M; Guibert, S; Schulz, M; Chin, M

Aerosol extinction profiles measured by the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility Raman lidar are used to evaluate aerosol extinction profiles and aerosol optical thickness (AOT) simulated by aerosol models as part of the Aerosol module inter- Comparison in global models (AEROCOM) project. This project seeks to diagnose aerosol modules of global models and subsequently identify and eliminate weak components in aerosol modules used for global modeling; AEROCOM activities also include assembling data sets to be used in the evaluations. The AEROCOM average aerosol extinction profiles typically show good agreement with the Raman lidar profiles for altitudes above about 2 km; below 2 km the average model profiles are significantly (30-50%) lower than the Raman lidar profiles. The vertical variability in the average aerosol extinction profiles simulated by these models is less than the variability in the corresponding Raman lidar pro files. The measurements also show a much larger diurnal variability than the Interaction with Chemistry and Aerosols (INCA) model, particularly near the surface where there is a high correlation between aerosol extinction and relative humidity.

• Research Organization: NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia (US); Pacific Northwest National Lab., Richland, WA (US); SAIC/NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia (US); Laboratorie des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environment, Toulouse (FR); NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy (US)
• OSTI ID: 841472
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AEROCOM
AEROSOL EXTINCTION PROFILES
AEROSOLS
CHEMISTRY
CLIMATES
DISTRIBUTION
GLOBAL MODELING
HUMIDITY
OPTICAL RADAR
RADIATIONS
SIMULATION
THICKNESS