Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Diego Villanueva, David Neubauer, Blaz Gasparini, Luisa Ickes, Ina Tegen
Summary: The study highlights the significant impact of dust ice nuclei on cloud glaciation in climate models, with satellite observations helping to constrain and improve the accuracy of simulations. Cloud freezing in mixed-phase clouds can have implications for radiation balance and precipitation, emphasizing the importance of considering both mean-state cloud-phase partitioning and cloud-phase contrasts in future studies.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Ottmar Moehler, Michael Adams, Larissa Lacher, Franziska Vogel, Jens Nadolny, Romy Ullrich, Cristian Boffo, Tatjana Pfeuffer, Achim Hobl, Maximilian Weiss, Hemanth S. K. Vepuri, Naruki Hiranuma, Benjamin J. Murray
Summary: Atmospheric ice-nucleating particles play a crucial role in cloud phase determination, but the lack of global data on their spatial and temporal variation hampers our understanding of ice-containing clouds. The new Portable Ice Nucleation Experiment (PINE) instrument demonstrates the ability to measure INP concentrations under various temperature conditions, making it a promising tool for automated field measurements and long-term monitoring.
ATMOSPHERIC MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Hassan Bencherif, Aziza Bounhir, Nelson Begue, Tristan Millet, Zouhair Benkhaldoun, Kevin Lamy, Thierry Portafaix, Fouad Gadouali
Summary: This study investigates aerosol distributions and a Sahara dust-storm event that occurred in the South of Morocco in early August 2018. It shows that aerosol populations in southern Morocco are dominated by Saharan desert dust, especially during the summer season. The study also uses the HYSPLIT model to simulate air-mass back-trajectories during the event.
Article
Environmental Sciences
N. B. Lakshmi, S. Suresh Babu, Vijayakumar S. Nair
Summary: Mineral dust aerosols over the Himalayas were assessed using 11 years (2006-2018) of polarization-resolved observations from the CALIOP instrument onboard the CALIPSO satellite. The extinction coefficient of dust aerosols was retrieved using the depolarization ratio, revealing significant regional and seasonal variations. Dust loading was highest during the pre-monsoon season (March-May) and lowest during the summer monsoon season (June-September) due to reduced dust transport associated with weak westerlies. About 64-74% of total aerosols over the Himalayas were composed of polluted dust, which is a mixture of dust and anthropogenic aerosols. Dry deposition of dust aerosols caused a substantial reduction in albedo and a radiative forcing of 0.38-23.7 Wm(-2) at the top of the atmosphere, potentially leading to significant warming and reduction in snow cover in the Himalayan cryosphere.
ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Qianqian Song, Zhibo Zhang, Hongbin Yu, Jasper F. Kok, Claudia Di Biagio, Samuel Albani, Jianyu Zheng, Jiachen Ding
Summary: The role of mineral dust aerosol in the global radiative energy budget is important. In this study, a size-resolved dust direct radiative effect (DRE) dataset is derived based on satellite observations, and the sensitivity of DRE to dust particle size distribution and optical properties is investigated. The results show that dust refractive index and shape have a significant impact on DRE.
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Miroslav Kocifaj, John C. Barentine
Summary: Reducing air pollution, specifically aerosols, has been shown to decrease night sky brightness (NSB) by tens of percent at relatively small distances from light sources. Cleaner city air lowers aerosol optical depth and darkens night skies, particularly in directions toward light sources. These findings suggest new policy actions to enhance existing light pollution reduction techniques.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Rachel E. Hawker, Annette K. Miltenberger, Jonathan M. Wilkinson, Adrian A. Hill, Ben J. Shipway, Zhiqiang Cui, Richard J. Cotton, Ken S. Carslaw, Paul R. Field, Benjamin J. Murray
Summary: Convective cloud systems in the maritime tropics significantly impact global climate, with ice-nucleating particles (INPs) playing a key role in altering the radiative properties of these clouds. The choice of INP parameterization can lead to variations in outgoing radiation and affect cloud microphysical processes. Climate models should consider the link between INPs and ice water content for improved simulations.
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Zainab Arub, Gaurav Singh, Gazala Habib, Ramya Sunder Raman
Summary: The traditional method of estimating hygroscopicity parameter (kappa) underestimates the value for highly polluted cities with mineral dust, while detailed chemical analysis shows a significant increase in kappa. The impact of mineral dust on kappa has crucial implications for Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) estimation and precipitation quantification by Global Climatic models.
ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
N. B. Lakshmi, Vijayakumar S. Nair, S. Suresh Babu
Summary: This study estimated the shortwave radiative effects of absorbing aerosols over the Indian landmass using a combination of spaceborne and ground-based observations, finding that pre-monsoon aerosol loading is mainly influenced by mineral dust and high aerosol warming within the planetary boundary layer is mainly caused by carbonaceous aerosols.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Marina Liaskoni, Peter Huszar, Lukas Bartik, Alvaro Patricio Prieto Perez, Jan Karlicky, Ondrej Vlcek
Summary: This study provides a model-based estimate of wind-blown dust (WBD) emissions over Europe and their impact on particulate matter (PM) concentrations. The study shows that WBD emitted from partly vegetated areas can significantly affect climate and air quality. The emissions are highest in Germany and have a greater impact on winter PM concentrations. The study also investigates the secondary impacts of WBD on secondary inorganic aerosol concentrations.
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Rachel E. Hawker, Annette K. Miltenberger, Jill S. Johnson, Jonathan M. Wilkinson, Adrian A. Hill, Ben J. Shipway, Paul R. Field, Benjamin J. Murray, Ken S. Carslaw
Summary: This study quantifies the effects of INP number concentration, temperature dependence of ice-nucleating activity, and Hallett-Mossop process on anvil clouds in deep convective clouds. Results show that INP number concentration primarily determines anvil ice crystal number concentration, while the temperature dependence of ice-nucleating aerosol activity mainly affects anvil ice crystal size.
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Farouk Lemmouchi, Juan Cuesta, Mathieu Lachatre, Julien Brajard, Adriana Coman, Matthias Beekmann, Claude Derognat
Summary: We propose a supervised machine learning approach to improve the accuracy of CHIMERE chemistry transport model in simulating the regional distribution of aerosol optical depth (AOD) over North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Our method utilizes MODIS AOD satellite observations to generate daily AOD maps with enhanced precision and full spatial domain coverage, which is crucial for regions with limited ground-based measurements. Four popular regression models, namely MLR, RF, XGB, and NN, are trained using satellite observations and geophysical variables, and their performances are evaluated against satellite and independent ground-based AOD observations. The results show that all models perform similarly, with RF exhibiting fewer spatial artifacts while slightly overcorrecting extreme AOD values.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Michail Mytilinaios, Sara Basart, Sergio Ciamprone, Juan Cuesta, Claudio Dema, Enza Di Tomaso, Paola Formenti, Antonis Gkikas, Oriol Jorba, Ralph Kahn, Carlos Perez Garcia-Pando, Serena Trippetta, Lucia Mona
Summary: This article compares and assesses a high-resolution regional desert dust reanalysis with satellite-based and ground-based observations. The assessment shows that the reanalysis is consistent with satellite and ground-based data in capturing dust sources and seasonal variations. However, the reanalysis slightly overestimates dust emissions from source regions and underestimates transported dust over outflow regions. Rating: 8 out of 10
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Dominika M. Szczepanik, Pablo Ortiz-Amezcua, Birgit Heese, Giuseppe D'Amico, Iwona S. Stachlewska
Summary: The study reveals the long-range transport of desert dust to the temperate climate zone due to the source location in the tropical climate zone. Between February 24-26, 2021, an aerosol outbreak occurred and reached Central Europe, resulting in unique meteorological conditions in Warsaw. The presence of Saharan dust inflow during winter in Warsaw was confirmed through lidar and sun-photometer measurements. The study also provides insights into the optical properties and size distribution of the aerosol.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Lei Li, Yevgeny Derimian, Cheng Chen, Xindan Zhang, Huizheng Che, Gregory L. Schuster, David Fuertes, Pavel Litvinov, Tatyana Lapyonok, Anton Lopatin, Christian Matar, Fabrice Ducos, Yana Karol, Benjamin Torres, Ke Gui, Yu Zheng, Yuanxin Liang, Yadong Lei, Jibiao Zhu, Lei Zhang, Junting Zhong, Xiaoye Zhang, Oleg Dubovik
Summary: This study presents a climatology of aerosol composition concentrations using the GRASP/Component algorithm approach applied to POLDER-3 observations. The results are consistent with general knowledge about aerosol types in different regions. Comparisons with the MERRA-2 product show reasonable agreement in spatial and temporal distribution, with some discrepancies in regions known for strong biomass burning and dust emissions.
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE DATA
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Karl D. Froyd, Pengfei Yu, Gregory P. Schill, Charles A. Brock, Agnieszka Kupc, Christina J. Williamson, Eric J. Jensen, Eric Ray, Karen H. Rosenlof, Huisheng Bian, Anton S. Darmenov, Peter R. Colarco, Glenn S. Diskin, ThaoPaul Bui, Daniel M. Murphy
Summary: Mineral dust particles play a critical role in the formation of cirrus clouds, according to global-scale dust observations and a cirrus-formation model. The formation of cirrus clouds in the Northern Hemisphere is primarily triggered by mineral dust.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jeffrey S. Reid, Amanda Gumber, Jianglong Zhang, Robert E. Holz, Juli Rubin, Peng Xian, Alexander Smirnov, Thomas F. Eck, Norman T. O'Neill, Robert C. Levy, Elizabeth A. Reid, Peter R. Colarco, Angela Benedetti, Taichu Tanaka
Summary: While satellite retrievals and data assimilation techniques have advanced in monitoring maritime Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), there are still uncertainties in distinguishing different species and improving degrees of freedom. Analysis of satellite data and models reveals regional differences related to terrestrial influence and latitude. MODIS and C4C exhibit biases in estimating AOD and fine mode AOD, particularly for high AOD values and high wind speeds. The study highlights the strengths and challenges of MODIS and C4C products for specific climate applications.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
G. Taha, R. Loughman, P. R. Colarco, T. Zhu, L. W. Thomason, G. Jaross
Summary: On 15 January 2022, the submarine Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption released materials to a record-breaking altitude. The injected material circled the globe within two weeks and is likely to influence the ozone hole.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Carolyn E. Jordan, Bruce E. Anderson, John D. Barrick, Dani Blum, Kathleen Brunke, Jiajue Chai, Gao Chen, Ewan C. Crosbie, Jack E. Dibb, Ann M. Dillner, Emily Gargulinski, Charles H. Hudgins, Emily Joyce, Jackson Kaspari, Robert F. Martin, Richard H. Moore, Rachel O'Brien, Claire E. Robinson, Gregory L. Schuster, Taylor J. Shingler, Michael A. Shook, Amber J. Soja, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Andrew T. Weakley, Elizabeth B. Wiggins, Edward L. Winstead, Luke D. Ziemba
Summary: This study used hyperspectral measurements to analyze the optical spectra of biomass burning aerosols, and found that measuring the absorption rather than reconstructing it from liquid extracts can provide more accurate results. Additionally, using second-order polynomial fitting to describe the spectral curve can achieve better fitting results. Moreover, it was observed that aerosol samples from different fires showed certain similarities in spectral features, providing a basis for hyperspectral measurements to differentiate aerosols from different ecosystems and under different conditions.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES
(2022)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Carsten Warneke, Joshua P. Schwarz, Jack Dibb, Olga Kalashnikova, Gregory Frost, Jassim Al-Saad, Steven S. Brown, Wm Alan Brewer, Amber Soja, Felix C. Seidel, Rebecca A. Washenfelder, Elizabeth B. Wiggins, Richard H. Moore, Bruce E. Anderson, Carolyn Jordan, Tara Yacovitch, Scott C. Herndon, Shang Liu, Toshihiro Kuwayama, Daniel Jaffe, Nancy Johnston, Vanessa Selimovic, Robert Yokelson, David M. Giles, Brent N. Holben, Philippe Goloub, Ioana Popovici, Michael Trainer, Aditya Kumar, R. Bradley Pierce, David Fahey, James Roberts, Emily M. Gargulinski, David A. Peterson, Xinxin Ye, Laura H. Thapa, Pablo E. Saide, Charles H. Fite, Christopher D. Holmes, Siyuan Wang, Matthew M. Coggon, Zachary C. J. Decker, Chelsea E. Stockwell, Lu Xu, Georgios Gkatzelis, Kenneth Aikin, Barry Lefer, Jackson Kaspari, Debora Griffin, Linghan Zeng, Rodney Weber, Meredith Hastings, Jiajue Chai, Glenn M. Wolfe, Thomas F. Hanisco, Jin Liao, Pedro Campuzano Jost, Hongyu Guo, Jose L. Jimenez, James Crawford
Summary: The NOAA/NASA Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) experiment aimed to study the impact of fires on regional and global environments and air quality. The experiment measured trace gas and aerosol emissions, observed fire dynamics, assessed fire modeling, and examined connections to ground and satellite observables. The experiment involved aircraft, satellites, mobile laboratories, and ground sites.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Chloe Yuchao Gao, Vaishali Naik, Larry W. Horowitz, Paul Ginoux, Fabien Paulot, John Dunne, Michael Mills, Valentina Aquila, Peter Colarco
Summary: This study modified the atmospheric component of the GFDL Earth System Model to simulate stratospheric sulfate aerosols and investigate the impact of volcanic eruptions. The results showed that the simulated stratospheric sulfate mass burden and aerosol optical depth are sensitive to injection height, emission amount, and aerosol size. The optimal combination of parameters depends on the observational metric used for evaluation.
JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN MODELING EARTH SYSTEMS
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Parker Case, Peter R. Colarco, Brian Toon, Valentina Aquila, Christoph A. Keller
Summary: In this study, the GEOS-Chem tropospheric-stratospheric chemistry mechanism and the Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmospheres (CARMA) were coupled within the GEOS CCM to investigate the interactions between stratospheric chemistry and aerosol microphysics. Observations of the 1991 Pinatubo volcanic cloud were used to evaluate the new version of the GEOS CCM. The study found that simulating the oxidation of sulfur dioxide (SO2) using the GEOS-Chem chemistry module more accurately than assuming constant hydroxyl radical (OH) concentrations is crucial, as OH concentrations decrease significantly in the weeks following the eruption.
JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN MODELING EARTH SYSTEMS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Haihui Zhu, Randall V. Martin, Betty Croft, Shixian Zhai, Chi Li, Liam Bindle, Jeffrey R. Pierce, Rachel Y. -W. Chang, Bruce E. Anderson, Luke D. Ziemba, Johnathan W. Hair, Richard A. Ferrare, Chris A. Hostetler, Inderjeet Singh, Deepangsu Chatterjee, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Benjamin A. Nault, Jack E. Dibb, Joshua S. Schwarz, Andrew Weinheimer
Summary: This study uses a global chemical transport model to analyze airborne measurements from the United States and South Korea, and proposes a parameterization method for representing aerosol size. This method improves the agreement between the simulation model and ground-measured data.
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Shixian Zhai, Daniel J. Jacob, Drew C. Pendergrass, Nadia K. Colombi, Viral Shah, Laura Hyesung Yang, Qiang Zhang, Shuxiao Wang, Hwajin Kim, Yele Sun, Jin-Soo Choi, Jin-Soo Park, Gan Luo, Fangqun Yu, Jung-Hun Woo, Younha Kim, Jack E. Dibb, Taehyoung Lee, Jin-Seok Han, Bruce E. Anderson, Ke Li, Hong Liao
Summary: Air quality network data in China and South Korea reveal high concentrations of coarse particulate matter (PM), with coarse PM contributing nearly half of PM10. The dominant source of coarse PM is anthropogenic fugitive dust, as indicated by strong daily correlations with carbon monoxide. Reductions in construction and vehicle traffic due to COVID-19 led to a significant decrease in coarse PM concentrations in 2020. The inclusion of anthropogenic coarse PM in air quality models helps to explain the formation of fine particulate nitrate and its sensitivity to emissions of ammonia and sulfur dioxide.
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Francesca Gallo, Kevin J. J. Sanchez, Bruce E. Anderson, Ryan Bennett, Matthew D. Brown, Ewan C. Crosbie, Chris Hostetler, Carolyn Jordan, Melissa Yang Martin, Claire E. Robinson, Lynn M. Russell, Taylor J. Shingler, Michael A. Shook, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Elizabeth B. Wiggins, Edward L. Winstead, Armin Wisthaler, Luke D. Ziemba, Richard H. Moore
Summary: The NASA NAAMES study conducted ship and aircraft field campaigns in the western subarctic Atlantic from 2015 to 2018. The study aimed to improve the understanding of aerosol-cloud interaction in the Atlantic Ocean. The data from 37 flights during the campaigns were analyzed to characterize the vertical profiles of aerosol properties under different conditions and regimes.
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Allison B. Marquardt Collow, Virginie Buchard, Peter R. Colarco, Arlindo M. da Silva, Ravi Govindaraju, Edward P. Nowottnick, Sharon Burton, Richard Ferrare, Chris Hostetler, Luke Ziemba
Summary: Biomass burning aerosol has significant impacts on the atmosphere and Earth system, but its representation in numerical weather prediction and climate models is not always accurate. Observations from the CAMP2Ex experiment reveal that the current models underestimate the aerosol extinction and show biases in the mass estimation of black and organic carbon. Furthermore, the models overestimate the hygroscopic growth and assume an incorrect particle size distribution for biomass burning aerosol. These findings indicate the need for improvements in the aerosol module of numerical models to better represent biomass burning aerosol.
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Rachel A. Bergin, Monica Harkey, Alicia Hoffman, Richard H. Moore, Bruce Anderson, Andreas Beyersdorf, Luke Ziemba, Lee Thornhill, Edward Winstead, Tracey Holloway, Timothy H. Bertram
Summary: This study compares aerosol surface area concentrations in the CMAQ model with observations from the DISCOVER-AQ campaign. The results show that the model underestimates aerosol surface area, but there is strong agreement in aerosol number concentration between the model and observations.
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Giorgio Doglioni, Valentina Aquila, Sampa Das, Peter R. Colarco, Dino Zardi
Summary: This study investigates the impact of carbonaceous aerosol injection from pyrocumulonimbus events on stratospheric meteorology. The findings demonstrate the essential role of aerosol radiative heating in maintaining a stratospheric anticyclone.
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Peng Xian, Jianglong Zhang, Norm T. O'Neill, Travis D. Toth, Blake Sorenson, Peter R. Colarco, Zak Kipling, Edward J. Hyer, James R. Campbell, Jeffrey S. Reid, Keyvan Ranjbar
Summary: This study presents a climatology and trend analysis of Arctic aerosol optical depth (AOD) during the spring and summertime periods from 2003 to 2019. The results show consistent spatial patterns and trends in AOD in the Arctic, and the aerosol reanalyses provide more reliable results compared to climate models. Black carbon AOD is mainly from biomass burning sources, and AOD exhibits significant interannual variations driven by fine-mode and biomass burning smoke.
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Remote Sensing
Sabrina N. Thompson, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Peter R. Colarco, Patricia Castellanos, Eric Lian, J. Vanderlei Martins
Summary: According to the 2017-2027 Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space, efforts are being made to identify cost-effective and appropriate space-based approaches to study aerosols, clouds, convection, and precipitation in the climate system. The research focuses on understanding how factors such as orbit geometry, solar and viewing angle geometry, and swath width influence the range of scattering angles observed by different polarimeter platforms.
FRONTIERS IN REMOTE SENSING
(2022)