Interpreting the Ultraviolet Aerosol Index Observed with the OMI Satellite Instrument to Understand Absorption by Organic Carbon Aerosols and Implications for Atmospheric Oxidation

Absorption of solar radiation by aerosols plays a major role in radiative forcing and atmospheric photochemistry. Many atmospheric chemistry models tend to overestimate tropospheric OH concentrations compared to observations. Accurately representing aerosol absorption in the UV could help rectify the discrepancies between simulated and observed OH concentrations. We develop a simulation of the Ultraviolet Aerosol Index (UVAI), using the 3-D chemical transport model GEOS-Chem coupled with the Vector Linearized Discrete Ordinate Radiative Transfer model (VLIDORT). The simulation is applied to interpret UVAI observations from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). Simulated and observed values are highly consistent in regions where mineral dust dominates the UVAI, but a large negative bias (-0.4 to -1.0) exists between simulated and observed values in biomass burning regions. We implement optical properties for absorbing organic aerosol, known as brown carbon (BrC), into GEOS-Chem and evaluate the simulation with observed UVAI values over biomass burning regions. The spectral dependence of absorption after adding BrC to the model is broadly consistent with reported observations for biomass burning aerosol, with Absorbing Angstrom Exponent (AAE) values ranging from 2.7 in the UV to 1.3 across the UV-Near IR spectrum. The addition of absorbing BrC decreases the mean bias between simulated and OMI UVAI values from -0.60 to -0.08 over North Africa in January, from -0.40 to -0.003 over South Asia in April, from -1.0 to -0.24 over southern Africa in July, and from -0.50 to +0.34 over South America in September. We assess the effect of the additional UV absorption by BrC on atmospheric photochemistry by examining ozone photolysis frequencies (J(O(1D))) and tropospheric OH concentrations in GEOS-Chem. The inclusion of BrC decreases J(O(1D)) and OH by up to 35% over biomass burning regions, and reduces the global bias in OH.