Abstract. Gas and particle measurements are described for optically thick regional hazes, dominated by aged smoke from biomass buming, in the cermdo and rain forested regions of Brazil. The hazes tended to be evenly mixed from the surface to the trade wind inversion at 34 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
Abstract. Airborne measurements of the emissions of gases and particles from 19 individual forest, cerrado, and pasture fires in Brazil were obtained during the Smoke, Clouds, and Radiation-Brazil (SCAR-B) study in August-September 1995. Emission factors were determined for a number of major and minor gaseous and particulate species, including carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, methane, nonmethane hydrocarbons, halocarbons, particulate (black and organic) carbon, and particulate ionic species. The magnitude of the emission factors for gaseous species were determined primarily by the relative amounts of flaming and smoldering combustion, rather than differences in vegetation type. Hydrocarbons and halocarbons were well correlated with CO, which is indicative of emissions primarily associated with smoldering combustion. Although there was large variability between fries, higher emission factors for SO 2 and NO x were associated with an increased ratio of flaming to smoldering combustion; this could be due to variations in the amounts of sulfur and nitrogen in the fuels. Emission factors for particles were not so clearly associated with smoldering combustion as those for hydrocarbons. The emission factors measured in this study are similar to those measured previously in Brazil and Africa. However, particle emission factors from fires in Brazil appear to be roughly 20 to 40% lower than those from North American boreal forest fires.
Emissions of particles, gases, heat, and water vapor from ships are discussed with respect to their potential for changing the microstructure of marine stratiform clouds and producing the phenomenon known as ''ship tracks.'' Airborne measurements are used to derive emission factors of SO 2 and NO from diesel-powered and steam turbine-powered ships, burning low-grade marine fuel oil (MFO); they were 15-89 and 2-25 g kg 1 of fuel burned, respectively. By contrast a steam turbine-powered ship burning high-grade navy distillate fuel had an SO 2 emission factor of 6 g kg 1. Various types of ships, burning both MFO and navy distillate fuel, emitted from 4 10 15 to 2 10 16 total particles per kilogram of fuel burned (4 10 15-1.5 10 16 particles per second). However, diesel-powered ships burning MFO emitted particles with a larger mode radius (0.03-0.05 m) and larger maximum sizes than those powered by steam turbines burning navy distillate fuel (mode radius 0.02 m). Consequently, if the particles have similar chemical compositions, those emitted by diesel ships burning MFO will serve as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) at lower supersaturations (and will therefore be more likely to produce ship tracks) than the particles emitted by steam turbine ships burning distillate fuel. Since steam turbine-powered ships fueled by MFO emit particles with a mode radius similar to that of diesel-powered ships fueled by MFO, it appears that, for given ambient conditions, the type of fuel burned by a ship is more important than the type of ship engine in determining whether or not a ship will produce a ship track. However, more measurements are needed to test this hypothesis. The particles emitted from ships appear to be primarily organics, possibly combined with sulfuric acid produced by gas-to-particle conversion of SO 2. Comparison of model results with measurements in ship tracks suggests that the particles from ships contain only about 10% water-soluble materials. Measurements of the total particles entering marine stratiform clouds from diesel-powered ships fueled by MFO, and increases in droplet concentrations produced by these particles, show that only about 12% of the particles serve as CCN. The fluxes of heat and water vapor from ships are estimated to be 2-22 MW and 0.5-1.5 kg s 1 , respectively. These emissions rarely produced measurable temperature perturbations, and never produced detectable perturbations in water vapor, in the plumes from ships. Nuclear-powered ships, which emit heat but negligible particles, do not produce ship tracks. Therefore, it is concluded that heat and water vapor emissions do not play a significant role in ship track formation and that particle emissions, particularly from those burning low-grade fuel oil, are responsible for ship track formation. Subsequent papers in this special issue discuss and test these hypotheses.
Airborne measurements from the Meteorological Research Flight's Hercules C-130 and the University of Washington's Convair C-131A during the Monterey Area Ship Track field project are used to evaluate Twomey's analytic expression for cloud susceptibility, which describes the sensitivity of cloud albedo to changes in droplet concentrations. This expression incorporates assumptions about cloud physics, such as the independence of the cloud liquid water content and the width of the droplet size distribution on droplet concentrations. Averaged over all 69 ship track penetrations, cloud liquid water content decreased slightly and the droplet size distributions broadened from the ambient values. For the 17 cases for which albedos were measured during overflights, Twomey's parameterization represents the trend of albedo changes with droplet concentrations remarkably well, passing through the midpoints of the considerable spread in the data. The fortuitous agreement results from compensating changes in cloud properties. Together with the albedo changes, the changes in cloud liquid water content and droplet size distributions imply that cloud thickness usually increased in the ship tracks. Such an increase was observed on the occasions that changes in cloud thickness were recorded (in the Sanko Peace ship track during very clean ambient conditions). Unfortunately systematic measurements of cloud thickness were not made for most of the ship tracks observed. The greatest outlier in the data corresponds to measurements made under horizontally inhomogeneous ambient conditions; possible explanations for its divergence include an increase in cloud thickness or an error in matching above-cloud albedo measurements with in-cloud microphysics measurements.
Airborne measurements in smoke from biomass burning in Brazil have yielded optical parameters that permit an improved assessment of the effects of smoke on Earth's radiation balance. The global-mean direct radiative forcing due to smoke from biomass burning worldwide is estimated to be no more than about -0.3 watt per square meter (cooling), compared with +2.45 watts per square meter (warming) due to anthropogenic greenhouse gases. On regional scales, direct radiative forcing due to smoke can be large and might indirectly affect global climate.
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