Detection of mineral dust over the North Atlantic Ocean and Africa with the Nimbus 7 TOMS ... : NIMBUS-7/TOMS detection of mineral dust over the north Africa and the eastern north Atlantic Ocean ...

• Main Authors: Chiapello, I., Prospero, J. M., Herman, Jay, Hsu, N. C.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: AGU 1999
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.13016/m2o14m-of36; https://mdsoar.org/handle/11603/28426

It has recently been found that the ultraviolet measurements obtained with the Nimbus 7 total ozone mapping spectrometer (TOMS) instrument can be used to retrieve information on the distribution of aerosols over oceanic and continental surfaces. Here we examine the use of the derived TOMS aerosol index (AI) for the detection of absorbing aerosol in terms of mineral dust aerosol over the North Atlantic Ocean and North Africa. Specifically, we compare the TOMS AI with the time series of daily aerosol measurements made in the boundary layer at Sal Island (Cape Verde), Barbados, and Miami and in the free troposphere on Tenerife (Canary Islands); these sites are frequently impacted by African dust events. At Tenerife, over the time period 1988–1992, TOMS detected 80% of the African dust events that yielded daily average dust concentrations greater than 20 μg m⁻³; at Barbados and Miami, TOMS detected 65% and 44% respectively of the events over the period 1979–1992. If we exclude events during which some of the ...