TARFOX Abstracts
at AGU Special Sessions
Baltimore, MD, 5/29-30, 1997

A41C-02 INVITED
"Aerosol Physical and Optical Properties From AERONET data at TARFOX"

LA Remer, RK Kleidman (both at Science Systems and Applications, Inc., NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt MD 20771; 301-286-8235; email remer@climate.gsfc.nasa.gov),
YJ Kaufman, BN Holben, (both at NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt MD 20771),
A Smirnov (SSAI, Lanham MD)

The AERONET network of automatic sun/sky radiometers collected data in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States in 1996 during TARFOX and in 1993 during SCAR-A. These combined data sets allow us to characterize the ambient total column aerosol. The aerosol is best represented by a dynamic model in which the accumulation mode particle size is permitted to grow as optical thickness increases. Sensitivity of the model to choices of refractive index are tested against observed sky radiance at various scattering angles. This method can be used to suggest the best representation of refractive index for total column ambient conditions and sidesteps the difficulties of knowing aerosol composition and humidification factor for calculations of direct forcing. The data sets also allow us to investigate the interannual variability of the aerosol characteristics and applicability of the TARFOX results to subsequent years. We see some differences between 1993 and 1996, but the main results remain the same