Wind-driven influences on aerosol light scattering in north-east atlantic air

Ten years (2001-2010) of aerosol light-scattering measurements in N.E. Atlantic marine air are analysed to determine wind-speed related influences on scattering properties. The scattering coefficient and the backscattering coefficient dependency on wind speed (U) was determined for the winter (Low B...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Vaishya, Aditya, Jennings, S. Gerard, O'Dowd, Colin
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2012
Subjects:
mace head
atmospheric aerosol
sea-salt
marine
nephelometer
3-wavelength
submicron
particles
station
coast
Mace
Jennings
North East Atlantic
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10379/14250
https://doi.org/10.1029/2011gl050556
Description
Summary:Ten years (2001-2010) of aerosol light-scattering measurements in N.E. Atlantic marine air are analysed to determine wind-speed related influences on scattering properties. The scattering coefficient and the backscattering coefficient dependency on wind speed (U) was determined for the winter (Low Biological Activity-LBA) and the summer seasons (High Biological Activity-HBA), and was found to be dependent on similar to U-2. In spite of having a U-2 dependency, scattering properties for the LBA-period are approximately twice those of the HBA-period. 96% of the LBA-HBA scattering difference can be explained by the combined effects of size distribution and refractive index differences while 70% of the scattering difference can be attributed to a difference in refractive index alone resulting from organic-matter enrichment during the HBA period. The 550 nm scattering coefficient was similar to 70 Mm(-1) for similar to 25 ms(-1) wind speeds, which is considerably higher than that encountered under polluted air masses in the same region. Citation: Vaishya, A., S. G. Jennings, and C. O'Dowd (2012), Wind-driven influences on aerosol light scattering in north-east Atlantic air, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L05805, doi:10.1029/2011GL050556.

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