Overview and Selected Recent Results from the NOAA Federated Aerosol Network

The NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) maintains several Atmospheric Baseline Observatories to monitor the global background levels of trace gases and aerosols in the atmosphere. Measurements at these remote sites permit us to determine to what extent the global backgrounds are changing over time. Since aerosols are perturbed near their sources, these observatories are in prime locations to assess baseline changes to the global atmospheric aerosol. In order to better understand anthropogenic aerosol radiative forcing and its effects on climate and to reduce the uncertainties associated with extrapolating a few discrete observations up to regional or global scales, ESRL has over the past two decades significantly expanded its global network of stations to include locations in different climatological regions that are at times influenced by anthropogenic emissions. The expansion of the network to include Southeast Asia, a major anthropogenic aerosol source region; the Arctic, a region considered the bellwether of global climate change; and other significantly perturbed areas was done by fostering collaborations with interested science organizations and universities in the U.S. and around the world. This long-term strategy permits estimates of how much of the aerosol radiative forcing at these locations is caused by human activities and sheds light on whether changes in policy can influence the effects of these aerosols. The collaborations we have developed present advantages for all parties and the aerosol data collected at any station are directly comparable with those from other stations in the network. This presentation describes the growth of this collaborative global surface aerosol-monitoring network (the NOAA Federated Aerosol Network) and shows long-term trends, cumulative statistics and some recent scientific results from these collaborations.