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

L L Stowe , H Jacobowitz (NOAA/NESDIS, Satellite Research Laboratory, NSC, Room 712, Washington, DC 20233, 301-763-8053; e-mail: lstowe@nesdis.noaa.gov);
C Kondragunta (UCAR Visiting Scientist, NESDIS, email: ckondr@orbit.nesdis.noaa.gov);
G Luo (SMART, Inc., 8401 Corp. Dr., Suite 430, Landover, MD 20785, email: lgang@nesdis.noaa.gov)

The direct (cloud-free) effect of aerosols on the radiation budget at the top of the atmosphere during the TARFOX experiment has been estimated by analysis of AVHRR data from the NOAA/14 satellite. The TARFOX experiment was a project of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Program, conducted from July 10-31, 1996, off the east coast of the U.S. The analysis has been done with data extracted from the NOAA/NASA AVHRR Pathfinder Atmosphere (PATMOS) project at NOAA/NESDIS. These datasets contain values of daily average cloud-free absorbed solar and emitted thermal radiative flux at the top of the atmosphere, and aerosol optical thickness on a 110 km equal area grid. To estimate the forcing by the aerosols, a region of the North Pacific with similar surface/atmosphere/geographical characteristics to the TARFOX area is used to represent an atmosphere uninfluenced by anthropogenic aerosols (clean). For any one day, differences between the PATMOS observed parameters in these two locations gives a measure of the radiative effects of the aerosols present in the TARFOX (polluted) area. The ratio of the flux differences between the polluted and clear areas to the differences in optical thickness between the same two areas, yields a measure of the aerosol radiative forcing sensitivity (used as an index of radiative forcing in climate models). Maps of these parameters are presented and the magnitude of the derived radiative forcing is compared with that measured by aircraft during TARFOX.