AAAR 31st Annual Conference
October 8-12, 2012
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Reconciling Surface-Based Aerosol Retrievals with In-situ Aircraft Measurements in the Baltimore-Washington Area during DISCOVER-AQ
SUZANNE CRUMEYROLLE, Luke Ziemba, Andreas Beyersdorf, Lee Thornhill, Edward Winstead, Gao Chen, Joel Schafer, Brent Holben, Richard Moore, Bruce Anderson, NASA Langley Research Center
Abstract Number: 519 Working Group: Aerosol Physics
Abstract Satellite measurements of aerosol and trace gas species represent an important tool in expanding the global observational dataset. These measurements are often challenged near urban areas by complex spatial and vertical structures arising from the combination of intense local emissions sources and long-range pollution transport. In-situ aircraft observations provide a detailed picture of vertical aerosol structure, and are thus essential for bridging the gap between satellite observations and ground based sensors.
We present detailed measurements of aerosol optical, chemical, and microphysical properties measured aboard the NASA P-3B aircraft in the Baltimore-Washington area during the July 2011 DISCOVER-AQ (Deriving Information on Surface Conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality) mission. Over two-hundred aircraft spiral ascents and descents were performed in the vicinity of six ground sites equipped with Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sun photometers. The payload of the P-3B included a comprehensive suite of aerosol instrumentation including humidified and dry TSI 3-wavelength integrating nephelometers, a 3-wavelength Radiance Research Particle Soot Absorption Photometer (PSAP), a custom scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS), a Droplet Measurement Technologies Ultrahigh Sensitivity Aerosol Spectrometer (UHSAS), and a TSI Aerodynamic Particle Sizer (APS). Column-integrated AERONET retrievals of aerosol single scattering albedo, Angstrom exponent and size distributions varied from those observed by the P-3B, which suggests contribution of local sources. A persistent coarse aerosol mode was retrieved from the ground, which was not observed onboard the P-3B, the implications of this disagreement for both AERONET and satellite retrievals will be discussed.