Abstract. Every year, from December to April, anthropogenic haze spreads over most of the North Indian Ocean, and South and Southeast Asia. The Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX) documented this Indo-Asian haze at scales ranging from individual particles to its contribution to the regional climate forcing. This study integrates the multiplatform observations (satellites, aircraft, ships, surface stations, and balloons) with one-and fourdimensional models to derive the regional aerosol forcing resulting from the direct, the semidirect and the two indirect effects. The haze particles consisted of several inorganic and carbonaceous species, including absorbing black carbon clusters, fly ash, and mineral dust. The most striking result was the large loading of aerosols over most of the South Asian region and the North Indian Ocean. The January to March 1999 visible optical depths were about 0.5 over most of the continent and reached values as large as 0.2 over the equatorial Indian ocean due to long-range transport. The aerosol layer extended as high as 3 km. Black carbon contributed about 14% to the fine particle mass and 11% to the visible optical depth. The single-scattering albedo estimated by several independent methods was consistently around 0.9 both inland and over the open ocean. Anthropogenic sources contributed as much as 80% (_+10%) to the aerosol loading and the optical depth. The in situ data, which clearly support the existence of the first indirect effect (increased aerosol concentration producing more cloud drops with smaller effective radii), are used to develop a composite indirect effect scheme. The Indo-Asian aerosols impact the radiative forcing through a complex set of heating (positive forcing) and cooling (negative forcing) processes. Clouds and black carbon emerge as the major players. The dominant factor, however, is the large negative forcing (-20 +_ 4 W m -t) at the surface and the comparably large atmospheric heating. Regionally, the absorbing haze decreased the surface solar radiation by an amount comparable to 50% of the total ocean heat flux and nearly doubled the lower tropospheric solar heating. We demonstrate with a general circulation model how this additional heating significantly perturbs the tropical rainfall patterns and the hydrological cycle with implications to global climate.
[1] A global estimate of the direct effects of anthropogenic aerosols on solar radiation in cloudy skies is obtained by integrating satellite and ground-based observations with models of aerosol chemistry, transport, and radiative transfer. The models adopt global distribution of aerosol optical depths (from MODIS), clouds, water vapor, ozone, and surface albedo from various satellite climatology. Gaps and errors in satellite derived aerosol optical depths are filled and corrected by surface network (AERONET), and an aerosol chemical-transport model (GOCART) by using statistical techniques. Using these derived aerosol properties and other related variables, we generate climatological monthly mean anthropogenic aerosol forcing for both clear and average cloudy skies. Unless otherwise stated, our estimates are for average cloudy skies, also referred to as all sky conditions. The global annual mean direct forcing is À0.35 Wm À2 (range of À0.6 to À0.1 Wm À2 ) at the top-of-the atmosphere (TOA), +3.0 Wm À2 (range of +2.7 to +3.3Wm À2 ) in the atmosphere, and À3.4 Wm À2 (range of À3.5 to À3.3 Wm À2 ) at the surface. The uncertainty of about 10-20% in the surface and atmosphere forcing translates into a six fold uncertainty in the TOA forcing because the TOA forcing is a small sum of two large terms (surface and atmosphere) of opposing signs. Given the current state of observations and modeling, it is very difficult to further reduce the uncertainty in the estimated TOA forcing. The major contributors to the uncertainty in atmospheric absorption are from the uncertainty in the vertical distribution of aerosols and the single scattering albedo of aerosols. The TOA forcing in clear skies is a factor of two different, while the surface and atmosphere forcing terms differ by only about 10-25%. Another major finding of this study is that the reduction in the surface solar radiation is a factor of 10 larger than the reduction in net solar (down minus up) radiation at TOA. The TOA forcing changes sign regionally, whereas the surface forcing is always negative. Thus caution must be exercised against relying too strongly on assessing the aerosol impacts based solely on global mean forcing. Aerosols over the NH contribute about 64% to the global surface forcing. Regionally the populated tropical regions contribute the most to the global surface forcing, with Asia the largest contributor. Roughly 49% of the total surface forcing is over the oceanic regions. Most of the previous global aerosol forcing estimate studies were conducted with a chemical transport model coupled to a general circulation model with model generated aerosols and cloudiness. Thus the present study, which adopts observed aerosol properties and observed three dimensional cloudiness, provides an independent approach for estimating the aerosol forcing.Citation: Chung, C. E., V. Ramanathan, D. Kim, and I. A. Podgorny (2005), Global anthropogenic aerosol direct forcing derived from satellite and ground-based observations,
[1] Black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC) are the largest contributors to the aerosol absorption in the atmosphere, yet the absorption cross sections of BC and OC per unit mass are subject to a large uncertainty due to morphology, physicochemical properties, and the mixing state of carbonaceous particles. Theoretical studies suggest the possibility of an enhanced absorption by soot-cloud drop agglomerates; however, the magnitude of the effect has never been measured directly and remains highly uncertain. This study is a laboratory experiment aimed at the modeling of direct radiation forcing due to soot-water interaction in the presence of glutaric acid, a water-soluble OC. Specifically, we generate, in the laboratory, hydrophobic soot (acetylene soot) and hydrophilic soot (mixture of acetylene soot and glutaric acid) and investigate the structural and optical properties of hydrophobic and hydrophilic soot particles in dry and water-saturated air. Hydrophobic soot (HBS) particles do not exhibit any structural or morphological differences under dry and saturated conditions, whereas hydrophilic soot (HLS) particles, i.e., BC with a monolayer of glutaric acid, collapse into globules when relative humidity (RH) is increased to saturation. The optical properties of HBS show very little dependence on RH while HLS scattering and absorption coefficient increase markedly with RH. For the cases considered here, the maximum enhancement in absorption for a soot-water drop mixture was as much as a factor of 3.5, very similar to theoretical predictions. The data provided in this study should advance the treatment of polluted cloud layers in climate models.
The ability of magnetoencephalography (MEG) to accurately localize neuronal currents and obtain tangential components of the source is largely due to MEG's insensitivity to the conductivity profile of the head tissues. However, MEG cannot reliably detect the radial component of the neuronal current. In contrast, the localization accuracy of electroencephalography (EEG) is not as good as MEG, but EEG can detect both the tangential and radial components of the source. In the present study, we investigated the conductivity dependence in a new approach that combines MEG and EEG to accurately obtain, not only the location and tangential components, but also the radial component of the source. In this approach, the source location and tangential components are obtained from MEG alone, and optimal conductivity values of the EEG model are estimated by best-fitting EEG signal, while precisely matching the tangential components of the source in EEG and MEG. Then, the radial components are obtained from EEG using the previously estimated optimal conductivity values. Computer simulations testing this integrated approach demonstrated two main findings. First, there are well-organized optimal combinations of the conductivity values that provide an accurate fit to the combined MEG and EEG data. Second, the radial component, in addition to the location and tangential components, can be obtained with high accuracy without needing to know the precise conductivity profile of the head. We then demonstrated that this new approach performed reliably in an analysis of the 20-ms component from human somatosensory responses elicited by electric median-nerve stimulation.
[1] We show here that absorbing aerosols have led to a large reduction of surface solar radiation during winter over the Himalayan region. Our results are based on radiometric, aerosol and Lidar observations made at three sites in Nepal during winter 2003. The monthly mean aerosol optical depth (AOD) ranged from 0.2 to 0.34 and the TERRA satellite MODIS data reveal that AODs measured over these sites were typical of the entire Himalayan region. The nearsurface aerosol single scattering albedo was in the range from 0.7 to 0.9. The presence of strongly absorbing aerosols resulted in a relatively large diurnal mean aerosol surface radiative forcing efficiency of À73 Wm À2 (per unit optical depth). The seasonal mean reduction in solar flux was as high as 25 Wm À2 and aerosol heating as much as 1 K per day within the first two kilometers.
The major finding of this study is that aerosols over the tropical Indian Ocean enhance clear sky atmospheric solar heating significantly and decrease the surface solar heating by even a larger amount. The results presented here are based on aerosol chemical, microphysical, and optical and radiometric data collected at the island of Kaashidhoo (4.97°N, 73.47°E) during February and March of 1998, as part of the first field phase of the Indian Ocean experiment (INDOEX). The aerosol optical properties were integrated with a multiple scattering Monte Carlo radiative transfer model which was validated at the surface with broadband flux measurements and at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) with the clouds and earth's radiant energy system (CERES) radiation budget measurements. We consider both externally and internally mixed aerosol models with very little difference between the two models in the estimated forcing. For the February-March period, the aerosols increase the monthly mean clear sky atmospheric solar heating by about 12 W/m2 (about 15% of the total atmospheric solar heating) and decrease the sea surface clear sky solar heating by about 16 W/m2 with a daily range from 5 to 23 W/m2. The net aerosol forcing at the top of the atmosphere is about −4 W/m2 with a daily range from −2 to −6 W/m2. Although the soot contributes only about 10% to the aerosol optical thickness, it contributes more than 50% to the aerosol induced atmospheric solar heating. The fundamental conclusion of this study is that anthropogenic aerosols over the tropical Indian Ocean are altering the clear sky radiation budget of the atmosphere and surface in a major manner.
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