10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Abstract View
The Birthplace of Cloud Nuclei - A Global Perspective from the Atmospheric Tomography Mission
CHRISTINA WILLIAMSON, Agnieszka Kupc, Anna Hodshire, Jack Kodros, Jeffrey R. Pierce, Pengfei Yu, Karl D. Froyd, Eric Ray, Frank Erdesz, Mathews Richardson, Thaopaul Bui, Charles Brock, NOAA ESRL and CIRES, University of Colorado Boulder
Abstract Number: 365 Working Group: Remote/Regional Atmospheric Aerosol
Abstract Atmospheric aerosols affect climate by direct scattering of solar radiation and by altering cloud properties. Current uncertainties in anthropogenic aerosol forcing are one of the largest factors in total uncertainties in predicting climate change. In situ measurements of the properties, origins and climatic relevance of aerosols are needed to constrain global climate models, validate satellite measurements and better understand aerosol sources and processing in the atmosphere. In-situ measurements of aerosol in the remote free troposphere have hitherto been particularly sparse.
The Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom) is a unique set of measurements characterizing the remote free troposphere. ATom uses the NASA DC-8 as a flying lab, equipped with gas phase and aerosol measurements, flying over both Pacific and Atlantic Ocean basins, with near pole-to-pole coverage, constantly scanning between 0.2 and 13km altitude. Measurements are conducted in all four seasons to capture seasonal variations.
We describe the measurement of aerosol size distributions from 3 to 3000nm diameter on ATom, how these measurements inform our understanding new particle formation in the remote atmosphere, and how these particles influence climate. We compare these contiguous global datasets of size distributions ATom with output from two global models with online aerosol microphysics: GEOS-Chem-TOMAS and CESM-CARMA.