SGPGET: AN SBDART Module for Aerosol Radiative Transfer

Quantification of the aerosol direct effect and climate sensitivity requires accurate estimates of optical properties as inputs to a radiative transfer model. Long-term measurements of aerosol properties at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site can be used as an improvement over a best guess or globa...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: McComiskey, A., Ricchiazzi, P., Ogren, J.A., Dutton, E.
Language:unknown
Published: 2008
Subjects:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ACCURACY
AEROSOLS
ALGORITHMS
ASYMMETRY
CLIMATES
CLOUDS
HEATING RATE
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
RADIANT HEAT TRANSFER
RADIATIONS
RESOLUTION
SENSITIVITY
WAVELENGTHS
north slope
Alaska
Online Access:http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/841539
https://www.osti.gov/biblio/841539
Description
Summary:Quantification of the aerosol direct effect and climate sensitivity requires accurate estimates of optical properties as inputs to a radiative transfer model. Long-term measurements of aerosol properties at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site can be used as an improvement over a best guess or global average for optical properties (e.g., asymmetry factor of 0.7) used in Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) products such as the Broadband Heating Rate Profile VAP. To make this information readily available to the ARM community and others, an add-on module for a commonly used radiative transfer model, SBDART (Ricchiazzi et al. 1998), is being developed. A look up table and algorithm will provide aerosol related model inputs including aerosol optical and atmospheric state properties at high temporal resolution. These inputs can be used in conjunction with any mode of operation and with any other information, for example, cloud properties, in SBDART or any other radiative transfer model. Aerosol properties measured at three visible wavelengths are extrapolated so that flux calculations can be made in any desired wavelength across the shortwave spectrum. Several sources of uncertainty contribute to degraded accuracy of the aerosol property estimation. The effect of these uncertainties is shown through error analysis and comparisons of modeled and observed surface irradiance. A module is also being developed for the North Slope of Alaska site.

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