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

A41C-06 INVITED
"An Overview of the University of Washington's Airborne Measurements in TARFOX"

P. V. Hobbs (Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Box 351640, Seattle, WA 98195-1640, USA; ph. 1-206-543-6027; e-mail: phobbs@atmos.washington.edu)

The overall goals of the Tropospheric Aerosol Radiative Forcing Observational Experiment (TARFOX) were to (1) measure the direct effects of tropospheric aerosols on regional radiation budgets while simultaneously measuring the chemical, physical and optical properties of the aerosol; (2) perform aerosol radiative "column closure" experiments; and, (3) validate satellite remote sensing measurements of aerosols over the ocean. The primary objectives of the University of Washington (UW) were to (1) obtain the airborne measurements (aboard its Convair C-131A aircraft) needed to carry out internal and external aerosol closure tests; (2) derive the magnitudes of direct aerosol radiative forcing on the US East Coast; (3) assess the contributions of various chemical species to the aerosol column optical depth; and (4) compare aerosol optical depths and other parameters from airborne in situ measurements with those derived from satellite and ground-based measurements. Eighteen research flights by the C-131A provided the data to meet these objectives. An overview will be given of the measurements obtained and some of the conclusions that have been derived from these data. Subsequent papers in this session will describe in more detail some of the important and surprising results that have emerged already from TARFOX.