A satellite view of aerosols in the climate system

Kaufman, Yoram J.; Tanré, D.; Boucher, Oliviér

doi:10.1038/nature01091

Cited by 2,053 publications

(1,331 citation statements)

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“…Since then, we found that clouds and aerosols (natural or pollution particles suspended in the air) play a critical role in determining cloud cover, precipitation, evaporation, and the response of the climate system to anthropogenic emissions [Gunn and Phillips, 1957;Ramanathan et al, 2001;Kaufman et al, 2002].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the twilight zone between clouds and aerosols

Koren

Remer

Kaufman

et al. 2007

Geophysical Research Letters

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[1] Cloud and aerosols interact and form a complex system leading to high uncertainty in understanding climate change. To simplify this non-linear system it is customary to distinguish between ''cloudy'' and ''cloud-free'' areas and measure them separately. However, we find that clouds are surrounded by a ''twilight zone'' -a belt of forming and evaporating cloud fragments and hydrated aerosols extending tens of kilometers from the clouds into the socalled cloud-free zone. The gradual transition from cloudy to dry atmosphere is proportional to the aerosol loading, suggesting an additional aerosol effect on the composition and radiation fluxes of the atmosphere. Using AERONET data, we find that the measured aerosol optical depth is higher by 13% ± 2% in the visible and 22% ± 2% in the NIR in measurements taken near clouds relative to its value in the measurements taken before or after, and that 30%À60% of the free atmosphere is affected by this phenomenon.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the twilight zone between clouds and aerosols

Koren

Remer

Kaufman

et al. 2007

Geophysical Research Letters

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317

365

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“…Atmospheric particles have an influence on the global climate system, providing an adverse effect on human health and visibility (Huebert et al, 2003;Kaufman et al, 2002;Menon et al, 2002;Richter et al, 2005). Severe droughts in northern China and enhanced summer floods in southern China may be associated with the anthropogenic atmospheric particles that modify the regional air circulation (Menon et al, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diurnal and temporal variations of water-soluble dicarboxylic acids and related compounds in aerosols from the northern vicinity of Beijing: Implication for photochemical aging during atmospheric transport

He¹,

Kawamura²,

Okuzawa³

et al. 2014

Science of The Total Environment

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Abstract:Aerosol samples were collected in autumn 2007 on day-and nighttime basis in the northern receptor site of Beijing, China. The samples were analyzed for total carbon (TC) and water-soluble dicarboxylic acids (C 2 -C 12 ), oxocarboxylic acids (C 2 -C 9 ), glyoxal and methylglyoxal to better understand the photochemical aging of organic aerosols in the vicinity of Beijing. Concentrations of TC are 50% greater in daytime when winds come from Beijing than in nighttime when winds come from the northern forest areas. Most diacids showed higher concentrations in daytime, suggesting that the organics emitted from the urban Beijing and delivered to the northern vicinity in daytime are subjected to photo-oxidation to result in diacids.However, oxalic acid (C 2 ), which is the most abundant diacid followed by C 3 or C 4 , became on average 30% more abundant in nighttime together with azelaic, ω-oxooctanoic and ω-oxononanoic acids, which are specific oxidation products of biogenic unsaturated fatty acids.Methylglyoxal, an oxidation product of isoprene and a precursor of oxalic acid, also became 29% more abundant in nighttime. Based on a positive correlation between C 2 and glyoxylic acid (ωC 2 ) in nighttime when relative humidity significantly enhanced, we propose a nighttime aqueous phase production of C 2 via the oxidation of ωC 2 . We found an increase in the contribution of diacids to TC by 3 folds during consecutive clear days. This study demonstrates that diacids and related compounds are largely produced in the northern vicinity of Beijing via photochemical processing of organic precursors emitted from urban center and forest areas.

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“…However, most of the air qualitymonitoring stations are located close to major urban areas leaving large areas without operational observations. Satellite remote sensing is well suited for a daily monitoring of the aerosol load (Kaufman et al, 2002;King et al, 1999). In the recent years several set of satellite data have fostered a comprehensive description of the temporal and spatial variability of different aerosol species, from anthropogenic aerosols ) to desert dust (Léon and Legrand, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of aerosol pollution events in France using ground-based and POLDER-2 satellite data

et al. 2006

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Abstract. We analyze the relationship between daily fine particle mass concentration (PM2.5) and columnar aerosol optical thickness derived from the Polarization and Directionality of Earth's Reflectances (POLDER) satellite sensor. The study is focused over France during the POLDER-2 lifetime between April and October 2003. We have first compared the POLDER derived aerosol optical thickness (AOT) with integrated volume size distribution derived from ground-based Sun Photometer observations. The good correlation (R=0.72) with sub-micron volume fraction indicates that POLDER derived AOT is sensitive to the fine aerosol mass concentration. Considering 1974 match-up data points over 28 fine particle monitoring sites, the POLDER-2 derived AOT is fairly well correlated with collocated PM2.5 measurements, with a correlation coefficient of 0.55. The correlation coefficient reaches a maximum of 0.80 for particular sites. We have analyzed the probability to find an appropriate air quality category (AQC) as defined by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from POLDER-2 AOT measurements. The probability can be up to 88.8% (±3.7%) for the "Good" AQC and 89.1% (±3.6%) for the "Moderate" AQC.

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A satellite view of aerosols in the climate system

Cited by 2,053 publications

References 93 publications

On the twilight zone between clouds and aerosols

On the twilight zone between clouds and aerosols

Diurnal and temporal variations of water-soluble dicarboxylic acids and related compounds in aerosols from the northern vicinity of Beijing: Implication for photochemical aging during atmospheric transport

Characterization of aerosol pollution events in France using ground-based and POLDER-2 satellite data

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