Assimilation of POLDER aerosol optical thickness into the LMDz-INCA model: Implications for the Arctic aerosol burden

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research
• Main Authors: Generoso, S., Breon, Francois-Marie, Chevallier, Fréderic, Balkanski, Yves, Schulz, Michael, Bey, Isabelle
• Other Authors: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Modélisation INVerse pour les mesures atmosphériques et SATellitaires (SATINV), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Modelling the Earth Response to Multiple Anthropogenic Interactions and Dynamics (MERMAID), Laboratoire de Modélisation de la Chimie Atmosphérique, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2007
• Subjects: [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-AO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]; [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; Arctic; Inca; Longyearbyen; Aerosol Robotic Network
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02872413; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02872413/document; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02872413/file/Generoso2007_JGR.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JD006954

International audience [1] The large spatial and temporal variability of atmospheric aerosol load makes it a challenge to quantify aerosol effect on climate. This study is one of the first attempts to apply data assimilation for the analysis of global aerosol distribution. Aerosol optical thickness (AOT) observed from the Polarization and Directionality of the Earth Reflectances (POLDER) spaceborne instrument are assimilated into a three-dimensional chemistry model. POLDER capabilities to distinguish between fine and coarse AOT are used to constrain them separately in the model. Observation and model errors are a key component of such a system and are carefully estimated on a regional basis using some of the high-quality surface observations from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET). Other AERONET data provide an independent evaluation of the a posteriori fields. Results for the fine mode show improvements, in terms of reduction of root-mean-square errors, in most regions with the largest improvements found in the Mediterranean Sea and Eurasia. We emphasize the results for the Arctic, where there is growing evidence of a strong aerosol impact on climate, but a lack of regional and continuous aerosol monitoring. The a posteriori fields noticeably well reproduce the winter-spring ''Arctic Haze'' peak measured in Longyearbyen (15°E, 78°N) and typical seasonal variations in the Arctic region, where AOT increase by up to a factor of three between a posteriori and a priori. Enhanced AOT are found over a longer period in spring 2003 than in 1997, suggesting that the large Russian fires in 2003 have influenced the Arctic aerosol load.