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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 30, NO. 12, 1655, doi:10.1029/2002GL016829, 2003

Observations of large aerosol infrared forcing at the surface

Andrew M. Vogelmann

Center for Atmospheric Sciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA

Piotr J. Flatau

Center for Atmospheric Sciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
UCAR Visiting Scientist to the Naval Research Laboratory, Monterey, California, USA

Malgorzata Szczodrak

Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Division of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA

Krzysztof M. Markowicz

Institute of Geophysics, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

Peter J. Minnett

Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Division of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA

Abstract

Studies of aerosol effects on the Earth’s energy budget usually consider only the cooling effects at short (solar) wavelengths, but we demonstrate that they also have important warming effects at thermal infrared (IR) wavelengths that have rarely been observed and are commonly ignored in climate models. We use high-resolution spectra to obtain the IR radiative forcing at the surface for aerosols encountered in the outflow from northeastern Asia. The spectra were measured by the Marine-Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (M-AERI) from the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown during the Aerosol Characterization Experiment-Asia (ACE-Asia). We show that the daytime surface IR forcing are often a few Wm⁻² and can reach almost 10 Wm⁻² for large aerosol loadings. Thus, even the smaller aerosol IR forcing observed here are comparable to or greater than the 1 to 2 Wm⁻² IR surface enhancement from increases in greenhouse gases. These results highlight the importance of aerosol IR forcing which should be included in climate model simulations.

Received 22 December 2002; accepted 21 May 2003; published 28 June 2003.

Index Terms: 0305 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801); 0394 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Instruments and techniques; 1630 Global Change: Impact phenomena; 3359 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Radiative processes; 3360 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Remote sensing.

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Citation: Vogelmann, A. M., P. J. Flatau, M. Szczodrak, K. M. Markowicz, and P. J. Minnett (2003), Observations of large aerosol infrared forcing at the surface, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30(12), 1655, doi:10.1029/2002GL016829.

Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union.