Overview Of Haze And Smoke Measurements in Northern High Latitudes And California During ARCTAS Using The NASA Ames Airborne Sunphotometer And Associated In Situ And Remote Sensors

The 14-channel NASA Ames Airborne Tracking Sunphotometer (AATS-14) operated in a suite of remote and in-situ sensors aboard the NASA P-3 aircraft during the 2008 Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) field campaign. Included were 8 Spring flights in the Arctic and 13 Summer flights (3 in California and 10 in Canada), each coordinated with one or more satellite overpasses, other aircraft (e.g., NASA B-200 and DC-8, NOAA P-3), and/or ground-based Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) measurements. This presentation gives an overview of AATS-14 aerosol optical depth (AOD) spectra and related parameters such as Angstrom exponent and fine mode fraction. We quantify the mutual consistency of AODs calculated from measurements by AATS-14, by the HiGEAR (University of Hawaii Group for Environmental Aerosol Research) suite of P-3 in-situ optical instruments, and by AERONET . The vertical integral of the HiGEAR in-situ scattering and absorption coefficients recorded during spiral profiles typically falls within 10% ± 0.02 of the AATS-14 AOD values interpolated to 450, 550 and 700 nm. Corresponding Angstrom exponents typically differ by ~0.1. AATS-14 AODs adjusted for the contribution of the layer below the aircraft (estimated with HiGEAR data) generally agree with the full column AERONET values to within the combined uncertainties. Example results from multi-platform comparisons are also shown. These results provide context for the more detailed AATS-14 results in other presentations, e.g., by Redemann et al. (focusing on the multi-platform, multi-sensor smoke case of 30 Jun 2008), Livingston et al. (comparisons to MODIS, MISR, OMI, POLDER, CALIPSO, and airborne lidar), and Shinozuka et al. (relationship to cloud condensation nuclei and other measurements).