Long-wave radiative forcing due to dust aerosols: observations and climatology comparisons

Dust aerosols have been identified by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change as a major source of uncertainty in the radiative forcing of the climate system. Optically thick plumes of dust and pollutants originating from arid regions can be lifted into the middle troposphere and are often transported over synoptic length scales. These events can decrease the upwelling long-wave fluxes at the top of atmosphere (TOA), especially in the mid-infrared portion of the spectrum. Although the long-wave effects of dust are included in model simulations, it is difficult to validate these effects in the absence of satellite-derived global estimates. Using hyper-spectral measurements from NASA's AIRS instrument, we estimate long-wave radiative forcing due to dust over the oceans for the year 2007. Firstly, we will present the results of these global, year long, radiative forcing estimates and secondly, we will use these estimates, along with other variables available from A-train instruments (e.g. MODIS aerosol optical depth) to evaluate the long-wave radiative forcing values from climatological data.