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Contribution of sea‐salt to aerosol optical depth over the Arabian Sea derived from MODIS observations
Author(s) -
Satheesh S. K.,
Srinivasan J.,
Moorthy K. Krishna
Publication year - 2006
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 - 10.1029/2005gl024856
Subject(s) - sea salt , wind speed , optical depth , aerosol , environmental science , mode (computer interface) , geology , sea surface temperature , satellite , oceanography , climatology , sea salt aerosol , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , aerospace engineering , computer science , engineering , operating system , physics
Making use of aerosol optical depths (AOD) derived from MODIS (onboard TERRA satellite) and winds from NCEP, and the fact that sea‐salt optical depth over ocean is determined primarily by sea‐surface wind speed, we examine the contribution of sea‐salt to the composite aerosol optical depth (AOD) over Arabian Sea (AS), by developing empirical models for characterizing wind‐speed dependence of sea‐salt optical depth. We show that at high wind speeds, sea‐salt contributes 81% to the coarse mode and 42% to the composite AOD in the southern AS. In contrast to this, over the northern AS, share of sea‐salt to coarse mode and composite optical depth is only 35% and 16% respectively. Comparison of the sea‐salt optical depth and coarse mode optical depth (MODIS) showed excellent agreement. The sea‐salt optical depth over AS at moderate to high wind speed is comparable to the anthropogenic AOD reported for this region during winter.