Applications of Sunphotometry to Aerosol Extinction and Surface Anisotropy

Tsay, S.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States)

关键词: Photometers;    Aerosols;    Clouds;    Anisotropy;    Greenhouse Gases;   

DOI  :  10.2172/830015
RP-ID  :  DOE/ER/62928
RP-ID  :  AI02-00ER62928
RP-ID  :  830015

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

Support cost-sharing of a newly developed sunphotometer in field deployment for aerosol studies. This is a cost-sharing research to deploy a newly developed sun-sky-surface photometer for studying aerosol extinction and surface anisotropy at the ARM SGP, TWP, and NSA-AAO CART sites and in many field campaigns. Atmospheric aerosols affect the radiative energy balance of the Earth, both directly by perturbing the incoming/outgoing radiation fields and indirectly by influencing the properties/processes of clouds and reactive greenhouse gases. The surface bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) also plays a crucial role in the radiative energy balance, since the BRDF is required to determine (i) the spectral and spectrally-averaged surface albedo, and (ii) the top-of-the-atmosphere (TOA) angular distribution of radiance field. Therefore, the CART sites provide an excellent, albeit unique, opportunity to collect long-term climatic data in characterizing aerosol properties and various types of surface anisotropy.