Premium
Measurement and modeling of background aerosols in remote marine atmospheres: Implications for sea salt flux
Author(s) -
Halthore Rangasayi N.,
Caffrey Peter F.
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 - 10.1029/2006gl026302
Subject(s) - angstrom exponent , aerosol , sea salt , mesoscale meteorology , flux (metallurgy) , altitude (triangle) , atmospheric sciences , northern hemisphere , angstrom , southern hemisphere , environmental science , boundary layer , sea salt aerosol , sea level , climatology , oceanography , geology , meteorology , physics , chemistry , organic chemistry , geometry , mathematics , thermodynamics , crystallography
Aerosol optical thickness (AOT) measurements at two remote Pacific Ocean locations in the northern hemisphere reveal an absolute minimum in the solar spectrum of magnitude ∼0.02 at 550 nm and an Ångström exponent of about 1. Along with similar results from measurements at continental sites reported previously, this minimum indicates the presence of background aerosol at both continental and marine sites. A measure of marine boundary layer AOT is obtained by taking the difference between values measured at sea‐level and at altitude on Mauna Loa, Hawaii. This then is compared with AOT calculated by a Lagrangian boundary‐layer microphysical aerosol model using sea‐salt and sulfate aerosols and with meteorology input from a mesoscale model to provide estimates of the sea salt flux that are within a factor of 7 of a hybrid Monahan‐Smith formulation.