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Properties of coastal Antarctic aerosol from combined FTIR spectrometer and sun photometer measurements
Author(s) -
Rathke Carsten,
Notholt Justus,
Fischer Jürgen,
Herber Andreas
Publication year - 2002
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 - 10.1029/2002gl015395
Subject(s) - aerosol , sun photometer , photometer , environmental science , spectrometer , atmospheric sciences , extinction (optical mineralogy) , atmosphere (unit) , radiative transfer , radiative forcing , remote sensing , meteorology , physics , optics , geology
Remotely sensing the physical and chemical properties of summertime aerosol at the Antarctic coastal station Neumayer has been accomplished for the first time by a combined analysis of atmospheric thermal emission spectra, measured by an FTIR spectrometer, and atmospheric visible‐near infrared extinction spectra, measured by a sun photometer. From the synergy of both spectral ranges, we find that the aerosol is composed of 1.1–1.6 mg m −2 of sulfates, with the water component in the solid phase, having a bimodal size distribution with radii peaking at 0.04 and 0.64 μm. We also provide the first estimate of the direct thermal radiative forcing of this aerosol: +1.68 W m −2 at the surface, and +0.006 W m −2 at the top of the atmosphere.