Optical modeling of aerosol extinction for remote sensing in the marine environment

A microphysical model is presented for the surface layer marine and coastal atmospheric aerosols that is based on long-term observations of size distributions for 0.01–100 μm particles in different geographic sites. The fundamental feature of the model is a parameterization of amplitudes and widths for aerosol modes of the aerosol size distribution function (ASDF) as functions of fetch and wind speed. The shape of the ASDF and its dependence on meteorological parameters, altitudes above sea level (H), fetch (X), wind speed (U) and relative humidity (RH) are investigated. The spectral profiles of the aerosol extinction coefficients calculated by MaexPro (Marine Aerosol Extinction Profiles) are in good agreement with observational data and the numerical results obtained from the Navy Aerosol Model (NAM) and the Advanced Navy Aerosol Model (ANAM). Moreover, MaexPro was found to be an accurate and reliable tool for investigation of the optical properties of atmospheric aerosols.