In situ Measurements of Absorbing Aerosols from Urban Sources, in Maritime Environments and during Biomass Combustion

Absorbing aerosols have important but still ill quantified effects on climate, visibility, cloud processes, and air quality. The compilation of aerosol scattering and absorption databases from reliable measurements is essential to reduce uncertainties in these inter-linked research areas. The atmospheric radiative balance for example, is modeled using the aerosol single scattering albedo (ratio of scattering to scattering plus absorption, SSA) as a fundamental input parameter in climate models. Sulfate aerosols with SSA values close to 1 scatter solar radiation resulting in a negative radiative forcing. However aerosol SSA values less than 1 are common when combustion processes are contributing to the aerosol sources. Absorbing aerosols directly heat the atmosphere and reduce the solar radiation at the surface. Currently, the net global anthropogenic aerosol direct radiative forcing is estimated to be around -0.5W m-2 with uncertainty of about 80% largely due to lack of understanding of SSA of sulfate-organic-soot aerosols. We present a rapidly expanding data set of direct in situ aerosol absorption and scattering measurements performed since June 2005 by photoacoustic instrument (at 781 and 870 nm), with integrated a total scattering sensor, during numerous field campaigns. Data have been collected over a wide range of aerosol sources, local environments and anthropogenic activities. Airborne measurements were performed in marine stratus off shore of the California coast and in cumulus clouds and clear air in the Houston, TX area; ground-based measurements have been performed in many locations in Mexico City; while laboratory measurements have been collected during a controlled combustion experiment of many different biomass fuels. The large dynamic range of aerosol types and conditions from these different field campaigns will be integrated to help quantify the SSA values, their variability, and their implications on the radiative forcing of climate.