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Aerosol radiative forcing over a tropical urban site in India
Author(s) -
Pandithurai G.,
Pinker R. T.,
Takamura T.,
Devara P. C. S.
Publication year - 2004
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 - 10.1029/2004gl019702
Subject(s) - aerosol , radiative forcing , single scattering albedo , radiative transfer , atmospheric sciences , environmental science , albedo (alchemy) , forcing (mathematics) , radiance , atmosphere (unit) , atmospheric radiative transfer codes , climatology , precipitable water , meteorology , physics , remote sensing , water vapor , geography , geology , art history , art , quantum mechanics , performance art
Using collocated measurements of aerosol radiative properties and radiative fluxes, aerosol radiative forcing is estimated at a tropical urban site in India, located between the sub‐continent and the Indian Ocean Experiment [INDOEX] sites. Observed sun/sky radiance data are used to derive aerosol spectral optical depth, single scattering albedo [SSA], asymmetry parameter, precipitable water and total column ozone. These serve as inputs to a radiative transfer model, to estimate aerosol forcing at the surface, the top‐of‐the atmosphere [TOA] and the atmosphere. During the dry season of 2001 and 2002 [November–April], these were found to be −33, 0 and 33 Wm −2 , respectively. Using measured radiative fluxes during different aerosol loading conditions yield a surface forcing of −31 Wm −2 . The surface forcing efficiency as computed from the two independent methods is found to be −88 and −84 Wm −2 , respectively, while mean SSA at 500 nm is found to be 0.81.