Abstract:
Except in the context of major pollution events, the impact of airborne particles on planetary habitability was largely unappreciated until the dawn of the satellite age. Space-based imagery starting in the late 1960s provided evidence that aerosols can be transported thousands of kilometers, frequently in sufficient amounts to affect global climate as well as regional air quality. The NASA Earth Observing System’s MODIS and MISR instruments, aboard the Terra satellite, began acquiring data in February 2000. This marked the beginning of the EOS era, and it represented a substantial leap in our ability to observe airborne particles frequently and globally from space. MODIS, a broad-swath, single-angle imager with 36 spectral channels, observes the entire planet every day or two, whereas MISR, an entirely new instrument concept at the time, has nine separate cameras pointing toward Earth at different angles, each acquiring data in four spectral bands, and sampling the whole planet about once per week. Both instruments continue to acquire data nominally after more than 23 years.
Aerosol forcing uncertainty represents the largest climate forcing uncertainty overall. Its magnitude has remained virtually undiminished over the past 20+ years despite considerable advances in understanding most of the key contributing elements. Reducing this uncertainty is critical for any effort to attribute, mitigate, or predict climate changes. The aerosol products from MISR and MODIS represent one component of what is required to place aerosol climate forcing on more solid ground. However, there are other essential components as well. Generally, current and planned satellite measurement and modeling efforts to characterize aerosol direct radiative forcing and the indirect effects due to aerosol-cloud interactions need to continue. In addition, new efforts are needed: (1) to obtain aircraft in situ measurements that capture systematically aerosol particle properties for the major aerosol airmass types, globally, (2) to conceive, develop, and implement an aircraft and surface-based program aimed at filling gaps in our understanding of the interactions between aerosol particles and clouds, along with (3) focusing much more research on integrating the unique contributions of satellite observations, suborbital measurements, and modeling, to reduce the uncertainty in our understanding of Earth’s changing climate.This talk will review what we are learning from our satellite measurements about how wildfire smoke particles evolve downwind, what volcanos, even in remote areas, emit over time, the way desert dust is transported across oceans, all in the context how these results fit into the larger picture of what will be required to constrain and to refine the modeling of aerosol climate forcing.
=========
For more info: https://lasp.colorado.edu/home/events-and-outreach/lasp-science-seminars/
Address Info:
LASP – Space Science Building
SPSC-W120
3665 Discovery Drive, Boulder, CO 80303