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Does dust change the clear sky top of atmosphere shortwave flux over high surface reflectance regions?
Author(s) -
Patadia Falguni,
Yang EunSu,
Christopher Sundar A.
Publication year - 2009
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 - 10.1029/2009gl039092
Subject(s) - shortwave , albedo (alchemy) , radiative transfer , atmosphere (unit) , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , single scattering albedo , mineral dust , aerosol , flux (metallurgy) , atmospheric radiative transfer codes , radiative flux , cloud albedo , sky , satellite , physics , meteorology , materials science , optics , astronomy , metallurgy , cloud computing , art , operating system , performance art , computer science , art history , cloud cover
Using four stream radiative transfer calculations, satellite‐derived aerosol optical thickness at 558 nm and top of atmosphere (TOA) broadband radiative fluxes we examine the effect of mineral dust aerosols on the clear sky TOA shortwave (0.3–5 μ m) fluxes over the Saharan desert [30E‐10W, 15N‐30N]. Over very bright surfaces (surface albedo > 35%), the TOA shortwave flux, from both satellite measurements and model calculations, is nearly insensitive to the increase in dust optical thickness. Below this surface albedo value, known as the critical albedo, mineral dust aerosols show scattering effects and above this they show absorbing effects. Therefore, over desert regions with a large range of surface albedo values, scattering and absorbing effects compensate each other thereby making the TOA shortwave aerosol radiative effect rather small.