Vertical Profile of Aerosol Radiative Effects over Asia Estimated from CALIPSO Data

Asian atmosphere is heavily loaded with aerosol particles. Continuous emissions of either natural desert dust or anthropogenic urban and/or biomass burning aerosols in Asia cause considerable changes in the radiative properties of aerosols which are a focus of many current global climate change models due to their significant effects on the perturbation of the radiation budget and cloud microphysical properties. Present study investigates vertical profiles of aerosols radiative effects over this region using CALIPSO. Vertical distribution of aerosol extinction coefficients at 532 nm and 1064 nm, angstrom exponent derived from these two extinction coefficients, and depolarization ratio at 532 nm have been included to determine different types of aerosols, especially dust, sea salt and anthropogenic aerosols like soot. Special importance has been given to investigate the radiative effects over source and downwind regions. This study presents that high-altitude aerosols in between four to eight kilometer altitude carry a significant role, especially for dust aerosols which dominate over the source regions as well as the downwind regions where they mix with pollutants. These high-altitude dust aerosols exert stronger radiative heating when mixed with soot over the downwind regions than those freshly generated over the source regions. The vertical distribution of aerosol radiative heating rate over Asia and the changes in heating profiles for different types of dust over source as well as downwind regions will be presented.