SGPGET: AN SBDART Module for Aerosol Radiative Transfer

• 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

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.