| Summary: | Smoke aerosols from biomass burning are an important component of the global aerosol cycle. Analysis of Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) retrievals of size distribution and refractive index reveals variety between biomass burning aerosols in different global source regions, in terms of aerosol particle size and single scatter albedo (SSA). Case studies of smoke transported to coastal/island AERONET sites also mostly lie within the range of variability at near-source sites. Two broad families of aerosol properties are found, corresponding to sites dominated by boreal forest burning (larger, broader fine mode, with midvisible SSA 0.95), and those influenced by grass, shrub, or crop burning with additional forest contributions (smaller, narrower particles with SSA 0.88-0.9 in the midvisible). The strongest absorption is seen in southern African savanna at Mongu (Zambia), with average SSA 0.85 in the midvisible. These can serve as candidate sets of aerosol microphysicaloptical properties for use in satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrieval algorithms. The models presently adopted by these algorithms over ocean are often insufficiently absorbing to represent these biomass burning aerosols. A corollary of this is an underestimate of AOD in smoke outflow regions, which has important consequences for applications of these satellite datasets.
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