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Contrail radiative forcing over the Northern Hemisphere from 2006 Aqua MODIS data
Author(s) -
Spangenberg Douglas A.,
Minnis Patrick,
Bedka Sarah T.,
Palikonda Rabindra,
Duda David P.,
Rose Fred G.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/grl.50168
Subject(s) - radiative forcing , longwave , environmental science , forcing (mathematics) , shortwave , atmospheric sciences , northern hemisphere , southern hemisphere , cloud forcing , moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer , radiative transfer , climatology , cirrus , meteorology , physics , aerosol , satellite , geology , quantum mechanics , astronomy
Abstract Radiative forcing due to linear‐shaped jet contrails is calculated over the Northern Hemisphere for four seasonal months using 2006 Aqua Moderate‐resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer cloud and contrail property retrieval data in a radiative transfer model. The 4 month mean shortwave, longwave, and net radiative forcings normalized to 100% contrail cover are −5.7, 14.2, and 8.5 Wm −2 . Mean total net forcing over the northern half of the globe varies from 9.1 mW m −2 during October to 12.1 mW m −2 in January and is only representative at 01:30 and 13:30 LT in nonpolar regions. In some dense flight traffic corridors, the mean net forcing approaches 80 mW m −2 . Scaling the 4 month average of 10.6 mW m −2 to the Southern Hemisphere air traffic yields global mean net forcing of 5.7 mW m −2 , which is smaller than most model estimates. Nighttime net forcing is 3.6 times greater than during daytime, when net forcing is greatest over low clouds. Effects from contrail cirrus clouds that evolve from linear contrails are not considered in these results.