Articles | Volume 20, issue 21
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12431-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12431-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
30 Oct 2020
Research article |
| 30 Oct 2020
| 30 Oct 2020
An AeroCom–AeroSat study: intercomparison of satellite AOD datasets for aerosol model evaluation
Department of Earth Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Andrew M. Sayer
Goddard Earth Sciences, Technology, and Research (GESTAR), Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, USA
Ocean Ecology Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, USA
Andreas Heckel
Department of Geography, Swansea University, Swansea, UK
Christina Hsu
Climate and Radiation Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, USA
Hiren Jethva
Goddard Earth Sciences, Technology, and Research (GESTAR), Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, USA
Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, USA
Gerrit de Leeuw
Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), R&D Satellite Observations, De Bilt, the Netherlands
Peter J. T. Leonard
ADNET Systems, Inc., Lanham, MD 20706, USA
Robert C. Levy
Climate and Radiation Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, USA
Antti Lipponen
Atmospheric Research Centre of Eastern Finland, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Kuopio, Finland
Alexei Lyapustin
Climate and Radiation Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, USA
Peter North
Department of Geography, Swansea University, Swansea, UK
Thomas Popp
German Aerospace Center (DLR), German Remote Sensing Data Center Atmosphere, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Caroline Poulsen
School of Earth Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Australia
now at: School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Virginia Sawyer
Climate and Radiation Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, USA
Science Systems and Applications (SSAI), Lanham, Maryland, USA
Larisa Sogacheva
Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Climate Research Programme, Helsinki, Finland
Gareth Thomas
Remote Sensing group, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire, UK
Omar Torres
Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, USA
Yujie Wang
Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Stefan Kinne
Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie, Hamburg, Germany
Michael Schulz
Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Research Department, Oslo, Norway
Philip Stier
Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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Maria Christina Gatou, Antti Lipponen, Ari Leskinen, Petri Tiitta, Maria Filioglou, Xiaoxia Shang, Sanna Pätsi, Annika Saarto, Marjut Roponen, Elina Giannakaki, and Mika Komppula
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Xinran Jiang, Gerrit de Leeuw, Cheng Fan, Jeon-Teo Dong, and Zhengqiang Li
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3382, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3382, 2026
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Atmos. Meas. Tech., 19, 4335–4365, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-4335-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-4335-2026, 2026
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A synergistic ground-based remote sensing algorithm applied to Aerosol Robotic Network and Multifilter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer allowed retrievals of UV (ultraviolet)-Vis (visible) spectral aerosol absorption of Saharan dust at the Izaña Atmospheric Observatory. The retrieved dataset provides a valuable reference for evaluating satellite ultraviolet dust absorption inversions and further helps infer dust mineralogy to improve dust representation in Earth System Models.
Xingyu Yao, Ying Zhang, Xiaofan Li, Gerrit de Leeuw, Cheng Fan, Yuanxun Zhang, Zhanshan Wang, Yongjie Wei, and Zhengqiang Li
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2619, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2619, 2026
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Cities are major sources of carbon emissions, but measuring them accurately remains challenging. This study combines satellite observations with atmospheric modeling to estimate city-scale carbon dioxide emissions. Tests in three Chinese cities show that observation uncertainty and total error strongly influence emission estimates and their spatial patterns. The results are consistent with existing datasets and support improved urban emission monitoring.
Ulrike Stöffelmair, Diana Dermann, and Thomas Popp
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2885, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2885, 2026
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Andrea Porcheddu, Ville Kolehmainen, Timo Lähivaara, Robert Levy, Yingxi Rona Shi, Hai Zhang, and Antti Lipponen
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1987, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1987, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT).
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We developed a new way to improve satellite measurements of atmospheric aerosols, which affect air quality and climate. By combining data from two geostationary satellites and using advanced machine learning methods that capture changes over time, we achieved more accurate and detailed results. This approach reduces errors in current satellite-based aerosol data and can better support monitoring and decision making related to air pollution and climate impacts.
Antti Lipponen, Jorge Lezaca, Yves-Marie Saint-Drenan, Marion Schroedter-Homscheidt, and Antti Arola
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2743, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2743, 2026
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Nick Schutgens, Elisabeth J. Andrews, Antti Arola, Yusuf Bhatti, Guanliang Fu, Otto Hasekamp, Pekka Kolmonen, Antti Lipponen, Tero Mielonen, Leighton Reygare, and Andrew M. Sayer
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2656, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2656, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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Aerosol are fine particles in the air that affect public health and the climate. We develop a new method to study aerosol through patterns (called autocorrelations) in their time-series. We show that autocorrelations are linked to aerosol deposition processes and contain information on the important but uncertain aerosol lifetime. Autocorrelations can be observed from satellites and we provide the first ever global climatology of aerosol autocorrelations.
Mathilde Ritman, William Jones, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 7105–7126, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-7105-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-7105-2026, 2026
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The link between storm updrafts and the high clouds they produce has been difficult to study at large scale but may be important for understanding climate sensitivity. This study uses a new high-resolution global climate model and cloud tracking approach to study this link. More intense updrafts saw larger clouds, but this relationship was much stronger when the updrafts themselves were wider. That means changes in the usual size of updrafts could link to changes in high-cloud area.
Adrien Guyot, Jacob Vile, Louis Soulard-Fischer, Hamish McGowan, Alain Protat, and Caroline Poulsen
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1907, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1907, 2026
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We studied how extreme wildfire clouds are detected from space and compared this with weather radar and lightning observations. We found that satellites can reliably detect when these clouds begin, but later tend to track spreading cloud tops rather than the active storm itself. This can make events appear larger and longer-lasting than they are. Combining different types of observations is therefore essential to better understand and monitor these dangerous fire-driven storms.
Yuqin Liu, Tao Lin, Jiahua Zhang, Fu Wang, Meixia Lin, Yuan Chen, Yiyi Huang, Hongkai Geng, Xin Cao, and Gerrit de Leeuw
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 6351–6375, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-6351-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-6351-2026, 2026
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This study reveals how air pollution affects cloud properties in eastern China using satellite data from 2008–2022. We find CER/LWP (cloud droplet effective radius/liquid water path) relationship exhibits three regimes, modulated by aerosol concentration. The Twomey effect is confirmed, and its sensitivity shows significant spatial-scale dependence. Surprisingly, cleaner air after 2015 make clouds less sensitive to pollution's effects. The optimal buffer sizes show notable variations for the study area in the range from 6°×6° to 10°×10°.
Gunnar Myhre, Øivind Hodnebrog, Srinath Krishnan, Maria Sand, Marit Sandstad, Ragnhild B. Skeie, Lieven Clarisse, Bruno Franco, Dylan B. Millet, Kelley C. Wells, Alexander Archibald, Hannah N. Bryant, Alex T. Chaudhri, David S. Stevenson, Didier Hauglustaine, Michael Prather, J. Christopher Kaiser, Dirk J. L. Olivie, Michael Schulz, Oliver Wild, Ye Wang, Thérèse Salameh, Jason E. Williams, Philippe Le Sager, Fabien Paulot, Kostas Tsigaridis, and Haley E. Plaas
Geosci. Model Dev., 19, 2577–2591, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-2577-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-2577-2026, 2026
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Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) affect air quality and climate, but their behavior in the atmosphere is still uncertain. We launched a global research effort to compare how different models represent these compounds and to improve their accuracy. By analyzing model results alongside observations and satellite data, we aim to better understand the atmospheric composition of these compounds.
Vishnu Nair, Edward Gryspeerdt, Antti Arola, Antti Lipponen, and Timo Virtanen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 4049–4066, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-4049-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-4049-2026, 2026
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Surface winds affect clouds by generating sea salt aerosols and evaporating water from the ocean and transporting them to the cloud base. Previous studies analysed these processes using satellite snapshots; here we use observations of evolving clouds which capture feedbacks due to time-dependent adjustments of clouds to aerosol changes. We show that even though sea salt changes droplet sizes, evaporation from the ocean surface has a stronger impact on clouds, thus hiding the real aerosol effect.
Arathy A. Kurup, Caroline Poulsen, Steven T. Siems, and Daniel J. V. Robbins
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 19, 1487–1514, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-1487-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-1487-2026, 2026
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Southern Ocean (SO) clouds are crucial in defining the Earth's radiation budget. They are primarily observed by satellites, due to a lack of surface observations. This study validated cloud top height and cloud mask and compared the microphysics products from 3 satellite cloud datasets over the SO. The study revealed significant differences in cloud property retrievals between the sensors. Multilayer clouds play a major role in the differences when validated with active satellite measurements.
Robert J. D. Spurr, Matt Christi, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Won-Ei Choi, Simon Carn, Can Li, Natalya Kramarova, David Haffner, Eun-Su Yang, Nick Gorkavyi, Alexander Vasilkov, Krzysztof Wargan, Omar Torres, Diego Loyola, Serena Di Pede, J. Pepijn Veefkind, Parker Case, Thomas Schroeder, and Pawan K. Bhartia
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 19, 993–1021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-993-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-993-2026, 2026
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The submarine eruption of the Hunga volcano released water vapor and sulfur dioxide directly into the stratosphere. The sulfur dioxide formed sulfuric acid aerosols leading to increased scattering of solar ultraviolet radiation (UV), interfering with satellite ozone retrievals. We present a new satellite technique for deriving the amount and height of Hunga aerosols from UV measurements, revealing an unusually low sulfuric acid concentration due to the water-rich conditions in the fresh plume.
William Wandji Nyamsi, Anders V. Lindfors, Angela Meyer, Antti Lipponen, and Antti Arola
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 19, 899–922, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-899-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-899-2026, 2026
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This paper proposes a new, fast and accurate method for estimating the cloud optical depth (τc) from photovoltaic (PV) power measurements under overcast sky conditions. The method performs very well with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) products as inputs describing the state of the atmosphere. The method exhibits a better performance than published state-of-the-art methods when compared to ground and satellite-based τc retrievals serving as reference.
Yusuf A. Bhatti, Duncan Watson-Parris, Leighton A. Regayre, Hailing Jia, David Neubauer, Ulas Im, Carl Svenhag, Nick Schutgens, Athanasios Tsikerdekis, Athanasios Nenes, Muhammed Irfan, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Ardit Arifi, Guangliang Fu, and Otto P. Hasekamp
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 269–293, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-269-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-269-2026, 2026
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Aerosols (small airborne particles) impact Earth's climate, but their extent is unknown. By running climate model simulations and using machine learning to emulate millions of additional variants with different settings, we found that natural emissions like sea spray and sulfur are key sources of uncertainty in climate predictions. Our work shows that understanding these natural processes better can help improve climate models and make future climate projections more accurate.
William K. Jones and Philip Stier
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6391, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6391, 2025
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Deep convective storm clouds produce large areas of high-altitude anvil clouds which are vital to balancing the Earth's energy budget due to both the reflection of sunlight and absorption of infrared radiation. Recent research has highlighted important changes in the anvil cloud thickness. In this study, we investigate how changes of convective intensity and convective organisation have different effects on anvil structure across the entire anvil cloud lifecycle using a cloud tracking approach.
Tom Eames, Nick Schutgens, Eleftherios Ioannidis, Ivar R. van der Velde, Max J. van Gerrevink, Roland Vernooij, and Guido R. van der Werf
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 17429–17453, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-17429-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-17429-2025, 2025
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Prescribed burning is used as a landscape management tool in southern African savannas. By deliberately changing the timing of fires in this region, the climate effect (radiative forcing) of a fire season can be altered. We show that by burning earlier in the dry season a small climate cooling effect can be achieved, similar to that of a 10 % reduction in global commercial aviation emissions. Local effects must be considered before implementing a fire regime shift for climate change mitigation.
Andrew M. Sayer, Brian Cairns, Kirk D. Knobelspiesse, Luca Lelli, Chamara Rajapakshe, Scott E. Giangrande, Gareth E. Thomas, and Damao Zhang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 6681–6703, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-6681-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-6681-2025, 2025
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Satellites can estimate cloud height in several ways: two include a thermal technique (colder clouds being higher up), and another looking at colours of light that oxygen in the atmosphere absorbs (darker clouds being lower down). It can also be measured (from ground or space) by radar and lidar. We compare satellite data we developed using the oxygen method with other estimates to help us refine our technique.
Meloë S. F. Kacenelenbogen, Ralph Kuehn, Nandana D. Amarasinghe, Kerry G. Meyer, Edward P. Nowottnick, Mark A. Vaughan, Hong Chen, Sebastian Schmidt, Richard A. Ferrare, Johnathan W. Hair, Robert C. Levy, Hongbin Yu, Paquita Zuidema, Robert Holz, and Willem Marais
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 15875–15911, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-15875-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-15875-2025, 2025
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Aerosols perturb the radiation balance of the Earth–atmosphere system. To reduce the uncertainty in quantifying present-day climate change, we combine two satellite sensors and a model to assess the aerosol effects on radiation in all-sky conditions. Satellite-based and coincident aircraft measurements of aerosol radiative effects agree well over the southeast Atlantic. This constitutes a crucial first evaluation before we apply our method to more years and more regions of the world.
Sarah Smith, Yutian Wu, Rob Levy, and Mingfang Ting
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 14333–14351, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14333-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14333-2025, 2025
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A lidar satellite instrument shows Arctic particulate matter is highest in winter and lowest in summer, while sunlight-based instruments show the opposite. When the sun is low on the horizon, sunlight-based measures increasingly decline relative to lidar (but only in certain cases), driving lower average winter values even beyond the Arctic. These seasonality biases are important for user guidance, while this new insight may help reduce particulate measurement uncertainties in complex scenes.
Zhe Ji, Zhengqiang Li, Gerrit de Leeuw, Zihan Zhang, Yan Ma, Zheng Shi, Cheng Fan, and Qian Yao
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 5783–5803, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-5783-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-5783-2025, 2025
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A global AOD product from Particulate Observing Scanning Polarimeter (POSP) has been proposed and validated using Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET). Results show a high accuracy, with correlation coefficients (R) of 0.914, a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.085, outperforming Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Error analysis reveals seasonal variation with lower accuracy in autumn/winter, and increased uncertainty with lower Normalized Difference Vegetation Index NDVI.
Hans Segura, Xabier Pedruzo-Bagazgoitia, Philipp Weiss, Sebastian K. Müller, Thomas Rackow, Junhong Lee, Edgar Dolores-Tesillos, Imme Benedict, Matthias Aengenheyster, Razvan Aguridan, Gabriele Arduini, Alexander J. Baker, Jiawei Bao, Swantje Bastin, Eulàlia Baulenas, Tobias Becker, Sebastian Beyer, Hendryk Bockelmann, Nils Brüggemann, Lukas Brunner, Suvarchal K. Cheedela, Sushant Das, Jasper Denissen, Ian Dragaud, Piotr Dziekan, Madeleine Ekblom, Jan Frederik Engels, Monika Esch, Richard Forbes, Claudia Frauen, Lilli Freischem, Diego García-Maroto, Philipp Geier, Paul Gierz, Álvaro González-Cervera, Katherine Grayson, Matthew Griffith, Oliver Gutjahr, Helmuth Haak, Ioan Hadade, Kerstin Haslehner, Shabeh ul Hasson, Jan Hegewald, Lukas Kluft, Aleksei Koldunov, Nikolay Koldunov, Tobias Kölling, Shunya Koseki, Sergey Kosukhin, Josh Kousal, Peter Kuma, Arjun U. Kumar, Rumeng Li, Nicolas Maury, Maximilian Meindl, Sebastian Milinski, Kristian Mogensen, Bimochan Niraula, Jakub Nowak, Divya Sri Praturi, Ulrike Proske, Dian Putrasahan, René Redler, David Santuy, Domokos Sármány, Reiner Schnur, Patrick Scholz, Dmitry Sidorenko, Dorian Spät, Birgit Sützl, Daisuke Takasuka, Adrian Tompkins, Alejandro Uribe, Mirco Valentini, Menno Veerman, Aiko Voigt, Sarah Warnau, Fabian Wachsmann, Marta Wacławczyk, Nils Wedi, Karl-Hermann Wieners, Jonathan Wille, Marius Winkler, Yuting Wu, Florian Ziemen, Janos Zimmermann, Frida A.-M. Bender, Dragana Bojovic, Sandrine Bony, Simona Bordoni, Patrice Brehmer, Marcus Dengler, Emanuel Dutra, Saliou Faye, Erich Fischer, Chiel van Heerwaarden, Cathy Hohenegger, Heikki Järvinen, Markus Jochum, Thomas Jung, Johann H. Jungclaus, Noel S. Keenlyside, Daniel Klocke, Heike Konow, Martina Klose, Szymon Malinowski, Olivia Martius, Thorsten Mauritsen, Juan Pedro Mellado, Theresa Mieslinger, Elsa Mohino, Hanna Pawłowska, Karsten Peters-von Gehlen, Abdoulaye Sarré, Pajam Sobhani, Philip Stier, Lauri Tuppi, Pier Luigi Vidale, Irina Sandu, and Bjorn Stevens
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 7735–7761, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-7735-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-7735-2025, 2025
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The Next Generation of Earth Modeling Systems project (nextGEMS) developed two Earth system models that use horizontal grid spacing of 10 km and finer, giving more fidelity to the representation of local phenomena, globally. In its fourth cycle, nextGEMS simulated the Earth System climate over the 2020–2049 period under the SSP3-7.0 scenario. Here, we provide an overview of nextGEMS, insights into the model development, and the realism of multi-decadal, kilometer-scale simulations.
Ove W. Haugvaldstad, Dirk Olivié, Trude Storelvmo, and Michael Schulz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 13199–13219, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-13199-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-13199-2025, 2025
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Our study examines what would happen if desert dust in the atmosphere doubled, motivated by dust sedimentation records showing a large increase in dust levels since industrialization began. Using climate model simulations, we assess how more dust affects Earth's energy balance and rainfall. We found that models disagree on whether more dust overall cools or warms the planet. Additionally, more dust tends to reduce rainfall because it absorbs radiation and encourages the formation of ice clouds.
Antti Kukkurainen, Antti Mikkonen, Antti Arola, Antti Lipponen, Ville Kolehmainen, and Neus Sabater
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 7529–7544, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-7529-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-7529-2025, 2025
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HAPI2LIBIS is a new software tool that enhances the capabilities of the radiative transfer model libRadtran. It simplifies high-wavelength-resolution simulations by using up-to-date molecular data from the HITRAN (High-Resolution Transmission Molecular Absorption) database and streamlining computations. This tool helps researchers analyze how gases interact with radiation in the Earth's atmosphere and at the surface, improving atmospheric studies and satellite observations and making detailed modeling more accurate and accessible.
Lise Seland Graff, Jerry Tjiputra, Ada Gjermundsen, Andreas Born, Jens Boldingh Debernard, Heiko Goelzer, Yan-Chun He, Petra Margaretha Langebroek, Aleksi Nummelin, Dirk Olivié, Øyvind Seland, Trude Storelvmo, Mats Bentsen, Chuncheng Guo, Andrea Rosendahl, Dandan Tao, Thomas Toniazzo, Camille Li, Stephen Outten, and Michael Schulz
Earth Syst. Dynam., 16, 1671–1698, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-16-1671-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-16-1671-2025, 2025
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The magnitude of future Arctic amplification is highly uncertain. Using the Norwegian Earth System Model, we explore the effect of improving the representation of clouds, ocean eddies, the Greenland ice sheet, sea ice, and ozone on the projected Arctic winter warming in a coordinated experiment set. These improvements all lead to enhanced projected Arctic warming, with the largest changes found in the sea ice retreat regions and the largest uncertainty found on the Atlantic side.
Cheng Fan, Gerrit de Leeuw, Xiaoxi Yan, Jiantao Dong, Hanqing Kang, Chengwei Fang, Zhengqiang Li, and Ying Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 11951–11973, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-11951-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-11951-2025, 2025
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This study describes the analysis of time series of the MODIS-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) over China between 2010 and 2024. Emission reduction policies were effective with respect to reducing the AOD until 2018. Thereafter, the overall reduction until the end of the study was very small due to unfavorable meteorological factors cancelling favorable anthropogenic effects and resulting in an AOD increase during extended periods. The variations over different areas in China are discussed.
Andrea Porcheddu, Ville Kolehmainen, Timo Lähivaara, and Antti Lipponen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 4771–4789, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-4771-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-4771-2025, 2025
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This study proposes a novel machine learning method to estimate pollution levels (PM2.5) on urban areas at fine scale. Our model generates hourly PM2.5 maps with high spatial resolution, by combining satellite data, ground measurements, geophysical model data, and different geographical indicators. The model properly accounts for spatial and temporal variability of the urban pollution levels, and can be highly beneficial for air quality monitoring and health protection.
Ying Zhang, Yuanyuan Wei, Gerrit de Leeuw, Ouyang Liu, Yu Chen, Yang Lv, Yuanxun Zhang, and Zhengqiang Li
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 10643–10660, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-10643-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-10643-2025, 2025
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Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a major pollutant that, at high concentrations, may affect human health. We evaluated the remote sensing column NO2 in relation to near-surface concentrations throughout the day and found that the prohibition of vertical transport in the morning and the mixing in the afternoon resulted in different relations between the near-surface (NS) and total column NO2 concentrations. These different relationships have consequences for the use of satellite remote sensing to estimate NS NO2 concentrations.
Mingxuan Wu, Hailong Wang, Zheng Lu, Xiaohong Liu, Huisheng Bian, David D. Cohen, Yan Feng, Mian Chin, Didier A. Hauglustaine, Vlassis A. Karydis, Marianne T. Lund, Gunnar Myhre, Andrea Pozzer, Michael Schulz, Ragnhild B. Skeie, Alexandra P. Tsimpidi, Svetlana G. Tsyro, and Shaocheng Xie
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 10049–10074, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-10049-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-10049-2025, 2025
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A key challenge in simulating the life cycle of nitrate aerosol in global models is accurately representing the mass size distribution of nitrate aerosol, which lacks sufficient observational constraints. We found that most global models underestimate the mass fraction of fine-mode nitrate at the surface in all regions. Our study highlights the importance of gas–aerosol partitioning parameterization and the simulation of dust and sea salt in correctly simulating the mass size distribution of nitrate.
August Thomasson, Pontus Roldin, Nick Schutgens, Babitha George, Hugo Denier van der Gon, Guillaume Monteil, and Marko Scholze
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1568, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1568, 2025
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We present top-down black carbon emissions estimates in Europe based on surface observations of concentrations at 24 rural sites from 2021. The annual emissions are 411 ± 10 Gg, overall 18 % higher compared to a traditional bottom-up estimate. Emissions are higher in for instance eastern Europe and the Iberian peninsula but lower in Poland and Italy. Validation with independent observations show overall better match and the uncertainties are reduced.
Ross J. Herbert, Andrew I. L. Williams, Philipp Weiss, Duncan Watson-Parris, Elisabeth Dingley, Daniel Klocke, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7789–7814, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7789-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7789-2025, 2025
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Clouds exist at scales that climate models struggle to represent, limiting our knowledge of how climate change may impact clouds. Here we use a new kilometer-scale global model representing an important step towards the necessary scale. We focus on how aerosol particles modify clouds, radiation, and precipitation. We find the magnitude and manner of responses tend to vary from region to region, highlighting the potential of global kilometer-scale simulations and a need to represent aerosols in climate models.
Xin Xi, Jun Wang, Zhendong Lu, Andrew M. Sayer, Jaehwa Lee, Robert C. Levy, Yujie Wang, Alexei Lyapustin, Hongqing Liu, Istvan Laszlo, Changwoo Ahn, Omar Torres, Sabur Abdullaev, James Limbacher, and Ralph A. Kahn
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7403–7429, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7403-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7403-2025, 2025
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The Aralkum Desert is challenging for aerosol retrieval due to its bright, heterogeneous, and dynamic surfaces and the lack of in situ constraints on aerosol properties. The performance and consistency of satellite algorithms in observing Aralkum-generated saline dust remain unknown. This study compares multisensor UVAI (ultraviolet aerosol index), AOD (aerosol optical depth), and ALH (aerosol layer height) products and reveals inconsistencies and potential biases over the Aral Sea basin.
Philipp Weiss, Ross Herbert, and Philip Stier
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 3877–3894, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3877-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3877-2025, 2025
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Aerosols strongly influence Earth's climate as they interact with radiation and clouds. New Earth system models run at resolutions of a few kilometers. To simulate the Earth system with interactive aerosols, we developed a new aerosol module. It represents aerosols as an ensemble of lognormal modes with given sizes and compositions. We present a year-long simulation with four modes at a resolution of 5 km. It captures key processes like the formation of dust storms in the Sahara.
Rachael E. Byrom, Gunnar Myhre, Øivind Hodnebrog, Dirk Olivié, and Michael Schulz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5683–5693, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5683-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5683-2025, 2025
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Addressing the cause of model spread in CO2 effective radiative forcing (ERF) is important for reducing uncertainty in climate change. We investigate stratospheric O3 as a driver of this spread by altering its concentration by 50 % and analysing the impact on CO2 forcing. Our experiments show a significant effect on stratospheric temperature that impacts instantaneous radiative forcing, primarily due to the influence on longwave emission. However, the impact on ERF is minimal.
Ulrike Stöffelmair, Thomas Popp, Marco Vountas, and Hartmut Bösch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 2005–2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2005-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2005-2025, 2025
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Aerosol composition has a large influence on the climate system. This study uses realistic simulated scenarios to look at the information content of a combination of three satellite-based instruments (SLSTR, IASI and GOME-2). It shows that it is possible to retrieve 6 to 15 different aerosol components in addition to the aerosol optical depth (AOD) and different surface parameters. The results are used for the development of a synergistic multi-sensor retrieval algorithm.
Timo H. Virtanen, Anu-Maija Sundström, Elli Suhonen, Antti Lipponen, Antti Arola, Christopher O'Dell, Robert R. Nelson, and Hannakaisa Lindqvist
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 929–952, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-929-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-929-2025, 2025
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We find that small particles suspended in the air (aerosols) affect the satellite observations of carbon dioxide (CO2) made by the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite instrument. Satellite estimates of CO2 appear to be too high for clean areas and too low for polluted areas. Our results show that CO2 and aerosols are often co-emitted, and this is partly masked out in the current retrievals. Correctly accounting for the aerosol effect is important for CO2 emission estimates by satellites.
Mariya Petrenko, Ralph Kahn, Mian Chin, Susanne E. Bauer, Tommi Bergman, Huisheng Bian, Gabriele Curci, Ben Johnson, Johannes W. Kaiser, Zak Kipling, Harri Kokkola, Xiaohong Liu, Keren Mezuman, Tero Mielonen, Gunnar Myhre, Xiaohua Pan, Anna Protonotariou, Samuel Remy, Ragnhild Bieltvedt Skeie, Philip Stier, Toshihiko Takemura, Kostas Tsigaridis, Hailong Wang, Duncan Watson-Parris, and Kai Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1545–1567, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1545-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1545-2025, 2025
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We compared smoke plume simulations from 11 global models to each other and to satellite smoke amount observations aimed at constraining smoke source strength. In regions where plumes are thick and background aerosol is low, models and satellites compare well. However, the input emission inventory tends to underestimate in many places, and particle property and loss rate assumptions vary enormously among models, causing uncertainties that require systematic in situ measurements to resolve.
Harri Kokkola, Juha Tonttila, Silvia M. Calderón, Sami Romakkaniemi, Antti Lipponen, Aapo Peräkorpi, Tero Mielonen, Edward Gryspeerdt, Timo Henrik Virtanen, Pekka Kolmonen, and Antti Arola
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1533–1543, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1533-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1533-2025, 2025
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Understanding how atmospheric aerosols affect clouds is a scientific challenge. One question is how aerosols affects the amount of cloud water. We used a cloud-scale model to study these effects on marine clouds. The study showed that variations in cloud properties and instrument noise can cause bias in satellite-derived cloud water content. However, our results suggest that for similar weather conditions with well-defined aerosol concentrations, satellite data can reliably track these effects.
Sean R. Foley, Kirk D. Knobelspiesse, Andrew M. Sayer, Meng Gao, James Hays, and Judy Hoffman
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 7027–7047, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-7027-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-7027-2024, 2024
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Measuring the shape of clouds helps scientists understand how the Earth will continue to respond to climate change. Satellites measure clouds in different ways. One way is to take pictures of clouds from multiple angles and to use the differences between the pictures to measure cloud structure. However, doing this accurately can be challenging. We propose a way to use machine learning to recover the shape of clouds from multi-angle satellite data.
Anna Tippett, Edward Gryspeerdt, Peter Manshausen, Philip Stier, and Tristan W. P. Smith
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13269–13283, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13269-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13269-2024, 2024
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Ship emissions can form artificially brightened clouds, known as ship tracks, and provide us with an opportunity to investigate how aerosols interact with clouds. Previous studies that used ship tracks suggest that clouds can experience large increases in the amount of water (LWP) from aerosols. Here, we show that there is a bias in previous research and that, when we account for this bias, the LWP response to aerosols is much weaker than previously reported.
Colin G. Jones, Fanny Adloff, Ben B. B. Booth, Peter M. Cox, Veronika Eyring, Pierre Friedlingstein, Katja Frieler, Helene T. Hewitt, Hazel A. Jeffery, Sylvie Joussaume, Torben Koenigk, Bryan N. Lawrence, Eleanor O'Rourke, Malcolm J. Roberts, Benjamin M. Sanderson, Roland Séférian, Samuel Somot, Pier Luigi Vidale, Detlef van Vuuren, Mario Acosta, Mats Bentsen, Raffaele Bernardello, Richard Betts, Ed Blockley, Julien Boé, Tom Bracegirdle, Pascale Braconnot, Victor Brovkin, Carlo Buontempo, Francisco Doblas-Reyes, Markus Donat, Italo Epicoco, Pete Falloon, Sandro Fiore, Thomas Frölicher, Neven S. Fučkar, Matthew J. Gidden, Helge F. Goessling, Rune Grand Graversen, Silvio Gualdi, José M. Gutiérrez, Tatiana Ilyina, Daniela Jacob, Chris D. Jones, Martin Juckes, Elizabeth Kendon, Erik Kjellström, Reto Knutti, Jason Lowe, Matthew Mizielinski, Paola Nassisi, Michael Obersteiner, Pierre Regnier, Romain Roehrig, David Salas y Mélia, Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, Michael Schulz, Enrico Scoccimarro, Laurent Terray, Hannes Thiemann, Richard A. Wood, Shuting Yang, and Sönke Zaehle
Earth Syst. Dynam., 15, 1319–1351, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-1319-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-1319-2024, 2024
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We propose a number of priority areas for the international climate research community to address over the coming decade. Advances in these areas will both increase our understanding of past and future Earth system change, including the societal and environmental impacts of this change, and deliver significantly improved scientific support to international climate policy, such as future IPCC assessments and the UNFCCC Global Stocktake.
Haihui Zhu, Randall V. Martin, Aaron van Donkelaar, Melanie S. Hammer, Chi Li, Jun Meng, Christopher R. Oxford, Xuan Liu, Yanshun Li, Dandan Zhang, Inderjeet Singh, and Alexei Lyapustin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 11565–11584, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11565-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11565-2024, 2024
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Ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) contributes to 4 million deaths globally each year. Satellite remote sensing of aerosol optical depth (AOD), coupled with a simulated PM2.5–AOD relationship (η), can provide global PM2.5 estimations. This study aims to understand the spatial patterns and driving factors of η to guide future measurement and modeling efforts. We quantified η globally and regionally and found that its spatial variation is strongly influenced by aerosol composition.
Andrea Porcheddu, Ville Kolehmainen, Timo Lähivaara, and Antti Lipponen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5747–5764, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5747-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5747-2024, 2024
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This study focuses on improving the accuracy of satellite-based PM2.5 retrieval, crucial for monitoring air quality and its impact on health. It employs machine learning to correct the AOD-to-PM2.5 conversion ratio using various data sources. The approach produces high-resolution PM2.5 estimates with improved accuracy. The method is flexible and can incorporate additional training data from different sources, making it a valuable tool for air quality monitoring and epidemiological studies.
Myungje Choi, Alexei Lyapustin, Gregory L. Schuster, Sujung Go, Yujie Wang, Sergey Korkin, Ralph Kahn, Jeffrey S. Reid, Edward J. Hyer, Thomas F. Eck, Mian Chin, David J. Diner, Olga Kalashnikova, Oleg Dubovik, Jhoon Kim, and Hans Moosmüller
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10543–10565, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10543-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10543-2024, 2024
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This paper introduces a retrieval algorithm to estimate two key absorbing components in smoke (black carbon and brown carbon) using DSCOVR EPIC measurements. Our analysis reveals distinct smoke properties, including spectral absorption, layer height, and black carbon and brown carbon, over North America and central Africa. The retrieved smoke properties offer valuable observational constraints for modeling radiative forcing and informing health-related studies.
Pawan Gupta, Robert C. Levy, Shana Mattoo, Lorraine A. Remer, Zhaohui Zhang, Virginia Sawyer, Jennifer Wei, Sally Zhao, Min Oo, V. Praju Kiliyanpilakkil, and Xiaohua Pan
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5455–5476, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5455-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5455-2024, 2024
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In this study, for the first time, we combined aerosol data from six satellites using a unified algorithm. The global datasets are generated at a high spatial resolution of about 25 km with an interval of 30 min. The new datasets are compared against ground truth and verified. They will be useful for various applications such as air quality monitoring, climate research, pollution diurnal variability, long-range smoke and dust transport, and evaluation of regional and global models.
Henk Eskes, Athanasios Tsikerdekis, Melanie Ades, Mihai Alexe, Anna Carlin Benedictow, Yasmine Bennouna, Lewis Blake, Idir Bouarar, Simon Chabrillat, Richard Engelen, Quentin Errera, Johannes Flemming, Sebastien Garrigues, Jan Griesfeller, Vincent Huijnen, Luka Ilić, Antje Inness, John Kapsomenakis, Zak Kipling, Bavo Langerock, Augustin Mortier, Mark Parrington, Isabelle Pison, Mikko Pitkänen, Samuel Remy, Andreas Richter, Anja Schoenhardt, Michael Schulz, Valerie Thouret, Thorsten Warneke, Christos Zerefos, and Vincent-Henri Peuch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 9475–9514, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9475-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9475-2024, 2024
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The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) provides global analyses and forecasts of aerosols and trace gases in the atmosphere. On 27 June 2023 a major upgrade, Cy48R1, became operational. Comparisons with in situ, surface remote sensing, aircraft, and balloon and satellite observations show that the new CAMS system is a significant improvement. The results quantify the skill of CAMS to forecast impactful events, such as wildfires, dust storms and air pollution peaks.
Sarah Wilson Kemsley, Paulo Ceppi, Hendrik Andersen, Jan Cermak, Philip Stier, and Peer Nowack
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 8295–8316, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8295-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8295-2024, 2024
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Aiming to inform parameter selection for future observational constraint analyses, we incorporate five candidate meteorological drivers specifically targeting high clouds into a cloud controlling factor framework within a range of spatial domain sizes. We find a discrepancy between optimal domain size for predicting locally and globally aggregated cloud radiative anomalies and identify upper-tropospheric static stability as an important high-cloud controlling factor.
Yeseul Cho, Jhoon Kim, Sujung Go, Mijin Kim, Seoyoung Lee, Minseok Kim, Heesung Chong, Won-Jin Lee, Dong-Won Lee, Omar Torres, and Sang Seo Park
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4369–4390, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4369-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4369-2024, 2024
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Aerosol optical properties have been provided by the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS), the world’s first geostationary-Earth-orbit (GEO) satellite instrument designed for atmospheric environmental monitoring. This study describes improvements made to the GEMS aerosol retrieval algorithm (AERAOD) and presents its validation results. These enhancements aim to provide more accurate and reliable aerosol-monitoring results for Asia.
G. Alexander Sokolowsky, Sean W. Freeman, William K. Jones, Julia Kukulies, Fabian Senf, Peter J. Marinescu, Max Heikenfeld, Kelcy N. Brunner, Eric C. Bruning, Scott M. Collis, Robert C. Jackson, Gabrielle R. Leung, Nils Pfeifer, Bhupendra A. Raut, Stephen M. Saleeby, Philip Stier, and Susan C. van den Heever
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 5309–5330, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-5309-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-5309-2024, 2024
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Building on previous analysis tools developed for atmospheric science, the original release of the Tracking and Object-Based Analysis (tobac) Python package, v1.2, was open-source, modular, and insensitive to the type of gridded input data. Here, we present the latest version of tobac, v1.5, which substantially improves scientific capabilities and computational efficiency from the previous version. These enhancements permit new uses for tobac in atmospheric science and potentially other fields.
Johannes Mülmenstädt, Edward Gryspeerdt, Sudhakar Dipu, Johannes Quaas, Andrew S. Ackerman, Ann M. Fridlind, Florian Tornow, Susanne E. Bauer, Andrew Gettelman, Yi Ming, Youtong Zheng, Po-Lun Ma, Hailong Wang, Kai Zhang, Matthew W. Christensen, Adam C. Varble, L. Ruby Leung, Xiaohong Liu, David Neubauer, Daniel G. Partridge, Philip Stier, and Toshihiko Takemura
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 7331–7345, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7331-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7331-2024, 2024
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Human activities release copious amounts of small particles called aerosols into the atmosphere. These particles change how much sunlight clouds reflect to space, an important human perturbation of the climate, whose magnitude is highly uncertain. We found that the latest climate models show a negative correlation but a positive causal relationship between aerosols and cloud water. This means we need to be very careful when we interpret observational studies that can only see correlation.
Daniel J. V. Robbins, Caroline A. Poulsen, Steven T. Siems, Simon R. Proud, Andrew T. Prata, Roy G. Grainger, and Adam C. Povey
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3279–3302, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3279-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3279-2024, 2024
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Extreme wildfire events are becoming more common with climate change. The smoke plumes associated with these wildfires are not captured by current operational satellite products due to their high optical thickness. We have developed a novel aerosol retrieval for the Advanced Himawari Imager to study these plumes. We find very high values of optical thickness not observed in other operational satellite products, suggesting these plumes have been missed in previous studies.
William K. Jones, Martin Stengel, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 5165–5180, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5165-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5165-2024, 2024
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Storm clouds cover large areas of the tropics. These clouds both reflect incoming sunlight and trap heat from the atmosphere below, regulating the temperature of the tropics. Over land, storm clouds occur in the late afternoon and evening and so exist both during the daytime and at night. Changes in this timing could upset the balance of the respective cooling and heating effects of these clouds. We find that isolated storms have a larger effect on this balance than their small size suggests.
Bjorn Stevens, Stefan Adami, Tariq Ali, Hartwig Anzt, Zafer Aslan, Sabine Attinger, Jaana Bäck, Johanna Baehr, Peter Bauer, Natacha Bernier, Bob Bishop, Hendryk Bockelmann, Sandrine Bony, Guy Brasseur, David N. Bresch, Sean Breyer, Gilbert Brunet, Pier Luigi Buttigieg, Junji Cao, Christelle Castet, Yafang Cheng, Ayantika Dey Choudhury, Deborah Coen, Susanne Crewell, Atish Dabholkar, Qing Dai, Francisco Doblas-Reyes, Dale Durran, Ayoub El Gaidi, Charlie Ewen, Eleftheria Exarchou, Veronika Eyring, Florencia Falkinhoff, David Farrell, Piers M. Forster, Ariane Frassoni, Claudia Frauen, Oliver Fuhrer, Shahzad Gani, Edwin Gerber, Debra Goldfarb, Jens Grieger, Nicolas Gruber, Wilco Hazeleger, Rolf Herken, Chris Hewitt, Torsten Hoefler, Huang-Hsiung Hsu, Daniela Jacob, Alexandra Jahn, Christian Jakob, Thomas Jung, Christopher Kadow, In-Sik Kang, Sarah Kang, Karthik Kashinath, Katharina Kleinen-von Königslöw, Daniel Klocke, Uta Kloenne, Milan Klöwer, Chihiro Kodama, Stefan Kollet, Tobias Kölling, Jenni Kontkanen, Steve Kopp, Michal Koran, Markku Kulmala, Hanna Lappalainen, Fakhria Latifi, Bryan Lawrence, June Yi Lee, Quentin Lejeun, Christian Lessig, Chao Li, Thomas Lippert, Jürg Luterbacher, Pekka Manninen, Jochem Marotzke, Satoshi Matsouoka, Charlotte Merchant, Peter Messmer, Gero Michel, Kristel Michielsen, Tomoki Miyakawa, Jens Müller, Ramsha Munir, Sandeep Narayanasetti, Ousmane Ndiaye, Carlos Nobre, Achim Oberg, Riko Oki, Tuba Özkan-Haller, Tim Palmer, Stan Posey, Andreas Prein, Odessa Primus, Mike Pritchard, Julie Pullen, Dian Putrasahan, Johannes Quaas, Krishnan Raghavan, Venkatachalam Ramaswamy, Markus Rapp, Florian Rauser, Markus Reichstein, Aromar Revi, Sonakshi Saluja, Masaki Satoh, Vera Schemann, Sebastian Schemm, Christina Schnadt Poberaj, Thomas Schulthess, Cath Senior, Jagadish Shukla, Manmeet Singh, Julia Slingo, Adam Sobel, Silvina Solman, Jenna Spitzer, Philip Stier, Thomas Stocker, Sarah Strock, Hang Su, Petteri Taalas, John Taylor, Susann Tegtmeier, Georg Teutsch, Adrian Tompkins, Uwe Ulbrich, Pier-Luigi Vidale, Chien-Ming Wu, Hao Xu, Najibullah Zaki, Laure Zanna, Tianjun Zhou, and Florian Ziemen
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 2113–2122, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2113-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2113-2024, 2024
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To manage Earth in the Anthropocene, new tools, new institutions, and new forms of international cooperation will be required. Earth Virtualization Engines is proposed as an international federation of centers of excellence to empower all people to respond to the immense and urgent challenges posed by climate change.
Yuqin Liu, Tao Lin, Jiahua Zhang, Fu Wang, Yiyi Huang, Xian Wu, Hong Ye, Guoqin Zhang, Xin Cao, and Gerrit de Leeuw
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4651–4673, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4651-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4651-2024, 2024
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A new method, the geographical detector method (GDM), has been applied to satellite data, in addition to commonly used statistical methods, to study the sensitivity of cloud properties to aerosol over China. Different constraints for aerosol and cloud liquid water path apply over polluted and clean areas. The GDM shows that cloud parameters are more sensitive to combinations of parameters than to individual parameters, but confounding effects due to co-variation of parameters cannot be excluded.
Hiren T. Jethva, Omar Torres, Richard A. Ferrare, Sharon P. Burton, Anthony L. Cook, David B. Harper, Chris A. Hostetler, Jens Redemann, Vinay Kayetha, Samuel LeBlanc, Kristina Pistone, Logan Mitchell, and Connor J. Flynn
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2335–2366, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2335-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2335-2024, 2024
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We introduce a novel synergy algorithm applied to ORALCES airborne measurements of above-cloud aerosol optical depth and UV–Vis satellite observations from OMI and MODIS to retrieve spectral aerosol single-scattering albedo of lofted layers of carbonaceous smoke aerosols over clouds. The development of the proposed aerosol–cloud algorithm implies a possible synergy of CALIOP and OMI–MODIS passive sensors to deduce a global product of AOD and SSA of absorbing aerosols above clouds.
Mijin Kim, Robert C. Levy, Lorraine A. Remer, Shana Mattoo, and Pawan Gupta
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1913–1939, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1913-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1913-2024, 2024
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The study focused on evaluating and modifying the surface reflectance parameterization (SRP) of the Dark Target (DT) algorithm for geostationary observation. When using the DT SRP with the ABIs sensor on GOES-R, artificial diurnal signatures were present in AOD retrieval. To overcome this issue, a new SRP was developed, incorporating solar zenith angle and land cover type. The revised SRP resulted in improved AOD retrieval, demonstrating reduced bias around local noon.
Stephanie Fiedler, Vaishali Naik, Fiona M. O'Connor, Christopher J. Smith, Paul Griffiths, Ryan J. Kramer, Toshihiko Takemura, Robert J. Allen, Ulas Im, Matthew Kasoar, Angshuman Modak, Steven Turnock, Apostolos Voulgarakis, Duncan Watson-Parris, Daniel M. Westervelt, Laura J. Wilcox, Alcide Zhao, William J. Collins, Michael Schulz, Gunnar Myhre, and Piers M. Forster
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 2387–2417, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2387-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2387-2024, 2024
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Climate scientists want to better understand modern climate change. Thus, climate model experiments are performed and compared. The results of climate model experiments differ, as assessed in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report. This article gives insights into the challenges and outlines opportunities for further improving the understanding of climate change. It is based on views of a group of experts in atmospheric composition–climate interactions.
Lorraine A. Remer, Robert C. Levy, and J. Vanderlei Martins
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2113–2127, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2113-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2113-2024, 2024
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Aerosols are small liquid or solid particles suspended in the atmosphere, including smoke, particulate pollution, dust, and sea salt. Today, we rely on satellites viewing Earth's atmosphere to learn about these particles. Here, we speculate on the future to imagine how satellite viewing of aerosols will change. We expect more public and private satellites with greater capabilities, better ways to infer information from satellites, and merging of data with models.
Xiaoxia Shang, Antti Lipponen, Maria Filioglou, Anu-Maija Sundström, Mark Parrington, Virginie Buchard, Anton S. Darmenov, Ellsworth J. Welton, Eleni Marinou, Vassilis Amiridis, Michael Sicard, Alejandro Rodríguez-Gómez, Mika Komppula, and Tero Mielonen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 1329–1344, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1329-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1329-2024, 2024
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In June 2019, smoke particles from a Canadian wildfire event were transported to Europe. The long-range-transported smoke plumes were monitored with a spaceborne lidar and reanalysis models. Based on the aerosol mass concentrations estimated from the observations, the reanalysis models had difficulties in reproducing the amount and location of the smoke aerosols during the transport event. Consequently, more spaceborne lidar missions are needed for reliable monitoring of aerosol plumes.
Kalle Nordling, Jukka-Pekka Keskinen, Sami Romakkaniemi, Harri Kokkola, Petri Räisänen, Antti Lipponen, Antti-Ilari Partanen, Jaakko Ahola, Juha Tonttila, Muzaffer Ege Alper, Hannele Korhonen, and Tomi Raatikainen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 869–890, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-869-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-869-2024, 2024
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Our results show that the global model is stable and it provides meaningful results. This way we can include a physics-based presentation of sub-grid physics (physics which happens on a 100 m scale) in the global model, whose resolution is on a 100 km scale.
Ouyang Liu, Zhengqiang Li, Yangyan Lin, Cheng Fan, Ying Zhang, Kaitao Li, Peng Zhang, Yuanyuan Wei, Tianzeng Chen, Jiantao Dong, and Gerrit de Leeuw
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 377–395, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-377-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-377-2024, 2024
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Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a trace gas which is important for atmospheric chemistry and may affect human health. To understand processes leading to harmful concentrations, it is important to monitor NO2 concentrations near the surface and higher up. To this end, a Pandora instrument has been installed in Beijing. An overview of the first year of data shows the large variability on diurnal to seasonal timescales and how this is affected by wind speed and direction and chemistry.
Karoline Block, Mahnoosh Haghighatnasab, Daniel G. Partridge, Philip Stier, and Johannes Quaas
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 443–470, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-443-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-443-2024, 2024
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Aerosols being able to act as condensation nuclei for cloud droplets (CCNs) are a key element in cloud formation but very difficult to determine. In this study we present a new global vertically resolved CCN dataset for various humidity conditions and aerosols. It is obtained using an atmospheric model (CAMS reanalysis) that is fed by satellite observations of light extinction (AOD). We investigate and evaluate the abundance of CCNs in the atmosphere and their temporal and spatial occurrence.
Meng Gao, Bryan A. Franz, Peng-Wang Zhai, Kirk Knobelspiesse, Andrew M. Sayer, Xiaoguang Xu, J. Vanderlei Martins, Brian Cairns, Patricia Castellanos, Guangliang Fu, Neranga Hannadige, Otto Hasekamp, Yongxiang Hu, Amir Ibrahim, Frederick Patt, Anin Puthukkudy, and P. Jeremy Werdell
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5863–5881, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5863-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5863-2023, 2023
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This study evaluated the retrievability and uncertainty of aerosol and ocean properties from PACE's HARP2 instrument using enhanced neural network models with the FastMAPOL algorithm. A cascading retrieval method is developed to improve retrieval performance. A global set of simulated HARP2 data is generated and used for uncertainty evaluations. The performance assessment demonstrates that the FastMAPOL algorithm is a viable approach for operational application to HARP2 data after PACE launch.
Hamza Ahsan, Hailong Wang, Jingbo Wu, Mingxuan Wu, Steven J. Smith, Susanne Bauer, Harrison Suchyta, Dirk Olivié, Gunnar Myhre, Hitoshi Matsui, Huisheng Bian, Jean-François Lamarque, Ken Carslaw, Larry Horowitz, Leighton Regayre, Mian Chin, Michael Schulz, Ragnhild Bieltvedt Skeie, Toshihiko Takemura, and Vaishali Naik
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 14779–14799, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14779-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14779-2023, 2023
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We examine the impact of the assumed effective height of SO2 injection, SO2 and BC emission seasonality, and the assumed fraction of SO2 emissions injected as SO4 on climate and chemistry model results. We find that the SO2 injection height has a large impact on surface SO2 concentrations and, in some models, radiative flux. These assumptions are a
hiddensource of inter-model variability and may be leading to bias in some climate model results.
Elisa Carboni, Gareth E. Thomas, Richard Siddans, and Brian Kerridge
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-232, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-232, 2023
Revised manuscript not accepted
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We analyzed different satellite datasets of cloud properties with a new approach to quantify and interpret their interannual variability based on singular vector decomposition (SVD). The spatial pattern and its temporal evolution are strikingly similar for all the satellite datasets and follow the El Nino Southern Oscillation. The SVD approach reported here has potential for application to satellite data sets and to evaluate consistency between models and observations.
Peter Manshausen, Duncan Watson-Parris, Matthew W. Christensen, Jukka-Pekka Jalkanen, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 12545–12555, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12545-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12545-2023, 2023
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Aerosol from burning fuel changes cloud properties, e.g., the number of droplets and the content of water. Here, we study how clouds respond to different amounts of shipping aerosol. Droplet numbers increase linearly with increasing aerosol over a broad range until they stop increasing, while the amount of liquid water always increases, independently of emission amount. These changes in cloud properties can make them reflect more or less sunlight, which is important for the earth's climate.
Hendrik Andersen, Jan Cermak, Alyson Douglas, Timothy A. Myers, Peer Nowack, Philip Stier, Casey J. Wall, and Sarah Wilson Kemsley
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 10775–10794, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10775-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10775-2023, 2023
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This study uses an observation-based cloud-controlling factor framework to study near-global sensitivities of cloud radiative effects to a large number of meteorological and aerosol controls. We present near-global sensitivity patterns to selected thermodynamic, dynamic, and aerosol factors and discuss the physical mechanisms underlying the derived sensitivities. Our study hopes to guide future analyses aimed at constraining cloud feedbacks and aerosol–cloud interactions.
Athanasios Tsikerdekis, Otto P. Hasekamp, Nick A. J. Schutgens, and Qirui Zhong
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9495–9524, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9495-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9495-2023, 2023
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Aerosols are tiny particles of different substances (species) that can be emitted into the atmosphere by natural processes or by anthropogenic activities. However, the actual aerosol emission amount per species is highly uncertain. Thus in this work we correct the aerosol emissions used to drive a global aerosol–climate model using satellite observations through a process called data assimilation. These more accurate aerosol emissions can lead to a more accurate weather and climate prediction.
Leighton A. Regayre, Lucia Deaconu, Daniel P. Grosvenor, David M. H. Sexton, Christopher Symonds, Tom Langton, Duncan Watson-Paris, Jane P. Mulcahy, Kirsty J. Pringle, Mark Richardson, Jill S. Johnson, John W. Rostron, Hamish Gordon, Grenville Lister, Philip Stier, and Ken S. Carslaw
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8749–8768, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8749-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8749-2023, 2023
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Aerosol forcing of Earth’s energy balance has persisted as a major cause of uncertainty in climate simulations over generations of climate model development. We show that structural deficiencies in a climate model are exposed by comprehensively exploring parametric uncertainty and that these deficiencies limit how much the model uncertainty can be reduced through observational constraint. This provides a future pathway towards building models with greater physical realism and lower uncertainty.
Amanda Gumber, Jeffrey S. Reid, Robert E. Holz, Thomas F. Eck, N. Christina Hsu, Robert C. Levy, Jianglong Zhang, and Paolo Veglio
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2547–2573, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2547-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2547-2023, 2023
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The purpose of this study is to create and evaluate a gridded dataset composed of multiple satellite instruments and algorithms to be used for data assimilation. An important part of aerosol data assimilation is having consistent measurements, especially for severe aerosol events. This study evaluates 4 years of data from MODIS, VIIRS, and AERONET with a focus on aerosol severe event detection from a regional and global perspective.
Xavier Ceamanos, Bruno Six, Suman Moparthy, Dominique Carrer, Adèle Georgeot, Josef Gasteiger, Jérôme Riedi, Jean-Luc Attié, Alexei Lyapustin, and Iosif Katsev
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2575–2599, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2575-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2575-2023, 2023
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A new algorithm to retrieve the diurnal evolution of aerosol optical depth over land and ocean from geostationary meteorological satellites is proposed and successfully evaluated with reference ground-based and satellite data. The high-temporal-resolution aerosol observations that are obtained from the EUMETSAT Meteosat Second Generation mission are unprecedented and open the door to studies that cannot be conducted with the once-a-day observations available from low-Earth-orbit satellites.
Ross Herbert and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4595–4616, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4595-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4595-2023, 2023
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We provide robust evidence from multiple sources showing that smoke from fires in the Amazon rainforest significantly modifies the diurnal cycle of convection and cools the climate. Low to moderate amounts of smoke increase deep convective clouds and rain, whilst beyond a threshold amount, the smoke starts to suppress the convection and rain. We are currently at this threshold, suggesting increases in fires from agricultural practices or droughts will reduce cloudiness and rain over the region.
Edward Gryspeerdt, Adam C. Povey, Roy G. Grainger, Otto Hasekamp, N. Christina Hsu, Jane P. Mulcahy, Andrew M. Sayer, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4115–4122, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4115-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4115-2023, 2023
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The impact of aerosols on clouds is one of the largest uncertainties in the human forcing of the climate. Aerosol can increase the concentrations of droplets in clouds, but observational and model studies produce widely varying estimates of this effect. We show that these estimates can be reconciled if only polluted clouds are studied, but this is insufficient to constrain the climate impact of aerosol. The uncertainty in aerosol impact on clouds is currently driven by cases with little aerosol.
Meri Räty, Larisa Sogacheva, Helmi-Marja Keskinen, Veli-Matti Kerminen, Tuomo Nieminen, Tuukka Petäjä, Ekaterina Ezhova, and Markku Kulmala
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 3779–3798, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3779-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3779-2023, 2023
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We utilised back trajectories to identify the source region of air masses arriving in Hyytiälä, Finland, and their travel time over forests. Combined with atmospheric observations, they revealed how air mass transport over the Fennoscandian boreal forest during the growing season produced an accumulation of cloud condensation nuclei and humidity, promoting cloudiness and precipitation. By 55 h of transport, air masses appeared to reach a balanced state with the forest environment.
Tuuli Miinalainen, Harri Kokkola, Antti Lipponen, Antti-Pekka Hyvärinen, Vijay Kumar Soni, Kari E. J. Lehtinen, and Thomas Kühn
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 3471–3491, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3471-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3471-2023, 2023
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We simulated the effects of aerosol emission mitigation on both global and regional radiative forcing and city-level air quality with a global-scale climate model. We used a machine learning downscaling approach to bias-correct the PM2.5 values obtained from the global model for the Indian megacity New Delhi. Our results indicate that aerosol mitigation could result in both improved air quality and less radiative heating for India.
William K. Jones, Matthew W. Christensen, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1043–1059, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1043-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1043-2023, 2023
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Geostationary weather satellites have been used to detect storm clouds since their earliest applications. However, this task remains difficult as imaging satellites cannot observe the strong vertical winds that are characteristic of storm clouds. Here we introduce a new method that allows us to detect the early development of storms and continue to track them throughout their lifetime, allowing us to study how their early behaviour affects subsequent weather.
Marine Bonazzola, Hélène Chepfer, Po-Lun Ma, Johannes Quaas, David M. Winker, Artem Feofilov, and Nick Schutgens
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 1359–1377, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-1359-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-1359-2023, 2023
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Aerosol has a large impact on climate. Using a lidar aerosol simulator ensures consistent comparisons between modeled and observed aerosol. We present a lidar aerosol simulator that applies a cloud masking and an aerosol detection threshold. We estimate the lidar signals that would be observed at 532 nm by the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization overflying the atmosphere predicted by a climate model. Our comparison at the seasonal timescale shows a discrepancy in the Southern Ocean.
Andrew M. Sayer, Luca Lelli, Brian Cairns, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Amir Ibrahim, Kirk D. Knobelspiesse, Sergey Korkin, and P. Jeremy Werdell
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 969–996, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-969-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-969-2023, 2023
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This paper presents a method to estimate the height of the top of clouds above Earth's surface using satellite measurements. It is based on light absorption by oxygen in Earth's atmosphere, which darkens the signal that a satellite will see at certain wavelengths of light. Clouds "shield" the satellite from some of this darkening, dependent on cloud height (and other factors), because clouds scatter light at these wavelengths. The method will be applied to the future NASA PACE mission.
Ricardo Dalagnol, Lênio Soares Galvão, Fabien Hubert Wagner, Yhasmin Mendes de Moura, Nathan Gonçalves, Yujie Wang, Alexei Lyapustin, Yan Yang, Sassan Saatchi, and Luiz Eduardo Oliveira Cruz Aragão
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 345–358, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-345-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-345-2023, 2023
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The AnisoVeg dataset brings 22 years of monthly satellite data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor for South America at 1 km resolution aimed at vegetation applications. It has nadir-normalized data, which is the most traditional approach to correct satellite data but also unique anisotropy data with strong biophysical meaning, explaining 55 % of Amazon forest height. We expect this dataset to help large-scale estimates of vegetation biomass and carbon.
Leighton A. Regayre, Lucia Deaconu, Daniel P. Grosvenor, David Sexton, Christopher C. Symonds, Tom Langton, Duncan Watson-Paris, Jane P. Mulcahy, Kirsty J. Pringle, Mark Richardson, Jill S. Johnson, John Rostron, Hamish Gordon, Grenville Lister, Philip Stier, and Ken S. Carslaw
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1330, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1330, 2022
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We show that potential structural deficiencies in a climate model can be exposed by comprehensively exploring its parametric uncertainty, and that these deficiencies limit how much the model uncertainty can be reduced through observational constraint. Combined consideration of parametric and structural uncertainties provides a future pathway towards building models that have greater physical realism and lower uncertainty.
Gonzalo A. Ferrada, Meng Zhou, Jun Wang, Alexei Lyapustin, Yujie Wang, Saulo R. Freitas, and Gregory R. Carmichael
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 8085–8109, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-8085-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-8085-2022, 2022
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The smoke from fires is composed of different compounds that interact with the atmosphere and can create poor air-quality episodes. Here, we present a new fire inventory based on satellite observations from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). We named this inventory the VIIRS-based Fire Emission Inventory (VFEI). Advantages of VFEI are its high resolution (~500 m) and that it provides information for many species. VFEI is publicly available and has provided data since 2012.
Andrew T. Prata, Roy G. Grainger, Isabelle A. Taylor, Adam C. Povey, Simon R. Proud, and Caroline A. Poulsen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5985–6010, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5985-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5985-2022, 2022
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Satellite observations are often used to track ash clouds and estimate their height, particle sizes and mass; however, satellite-based techniques are always associated with some uncertainty. We describe advances in a satellite-based technique that is used to estimate ash cloud properties for the June 2019 Raikoke (Russia) eruption. Our results are significant because ash warning centres increasingly require uncertainty information to correctly interpret,
aggregate and utilise the data.
Ville Leinonen, Harri Kokkola, Taina Yli-Juuti, Tero Mielonen, Thomas Kühn, Tuomo Nieminen, Simo Heikkinen, Tuuli Miinalainen, Tommi Bergman, Ken Carslaw, Stefano Decesari, Markus Fiebig, Tareq Hussein, Niku Kivekäs, Radovan Krejci, Markku Kulmala, Ari Leskinen, Andreas Massling, Nikos Mihalopoulos, Jane P. Mulcahy, Steffen M. Noe, Twan van Noije, Fiona M. O'Connor, Colin O'Dowd, Dirk Olivie, Jakob B. Pernov, Tuukka Petäjä, Øyvind Seland, Michael Schulz, Catherine E. Scott, Henrik Skov, Erik Swietlicki, Thomas Tuch, Alfred Wiedensohler, Annele Virtanen, and Santtu Mikkonen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12873–12905, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12873-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12873-2022, 2022
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We provide the first extensive comparison of detailed aerosol size distribution trends between in situ observations from Europe and five different earth system models. We investigated aerosol modes (nucleation, Aitken, and accumulation) separately and were able to show the differences between measured and modeled trends and especially their seasonal patterns. The differences in model results are likely due to complex effects of several processes instead of certain specific model features.
Johannes Quaas, Hailing Jia, Chris Smith, Anna Lea Albright, Wenche Aas, Nicolas Bellouin, Olivier Boucher, Marie Doutriaux-Boucher, Piers M. Forster, Daniel Grosvenor, Stuart Jenkins, Zbigniew Klimont, Norman G. Loeb, Xiaoyan Ma, Vaishali Naik, Fabien Paulot, Philip Stier, Martin Wild, Gunnar Myhre, and Michael Schulz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12221–12239, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12221-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12221-2022, 2022
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Pollution particles cool climate and offset part of the global warming. However, they are washed out by rain and thus their effect responds quickly to changes in emissions. We show multiple datasets to demonstrate that aerosol emissions and their concentrations declined in many regions influenced by human emissions, as did the effects on clouds. Consequently, the cooling impact on the Earth energy budget became smaller. This change in trend implies a relative warming.
Larisa Sogacheva, Matthieu Denisselle, Pekka Kolmonen, Timo H. Virtanen, Peter North, Claire Henocq, Silvia Scifoni, and Steffen Dransfeld
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5289–5322, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5289-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5289-2022, 2022
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The aim of this study was to provide global characterisation of a new SYNERGY aerosol product derived from the data from the OLCI and SLSTR sensors aboard the Sentinel-3A and Sentinel-3B satellites. Over ocean, the performance of SYNERGY-retrieved AOD is good. Reduced performance over land was expected since the surface reflectance and angular distribution of scattering are more difficult to treat. Validation statistics are often slightly better for S3B and in the Southern Hemisphere.
Chao Yan, Yicheng Shen, Dominik Stolzenburg, Lubna Dada, Ximeng Qi, Simo Hakala, Anu-Maija Sundström, Yishuo Guo, Antti Lipponen, Tom V. Kokkonen, Jenni Kontkanen, Runlong Cai, Jing Cai, Tommy Chan, Liangduo Chen, Biwu Chu, Chenjuan Deng, Wei Du, Xiaolong Fan, Xu-Cheng He, Juha Kangasluoma, Joni Kujansuu, Mona Kurppa, Chang Li, Yiran Li, Zhuohui Lin, Yiliang Liu, Yuliang Liu, Yiqun Lu, Wei Nie, Jouni Pulliainen, Xiaohui Qiao, Yonghong Wang, Yifan Wen, Ye Wu, Gan Yang, Lei Yao, Rujing Yin, Gen Zhang, Shaojun Zhang, Feixue Zheng, Ying Zhou, Antti Arola, Johanna Tamminen, Pauli Paasonen, Yele Sun, Lin Wang, Neil M. Donahue, Yongchun Liu, Federico Bianchi, Kaspar R. Daellenbach, Douglas R. Worsnop, Veli-Matti Kerminen, Tuukka Petäjä, Aijun Ding, Jingkun Jiang, and Markku Kulmala
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12207–12220, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12207-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12207-2022, 2022
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Atmospheric new particle formation (NPF) is a dominant source of atmospheric ultrafine particles. In urban environments, traffic emissions are a major source of primary pollutants, but their contribution to NPF remains under debate. During the COVID-19 lockdown, traffic emissions were significantly reduced, providing a unique chance to examine their relevance to NPF. Based on our comprehensive measurements, we demonstrate that traffic emissions alone are not able to explain the NPF in Beijing.
Qirui Zhong, Nick Schutgens, Guido van der Werf, Twan van Noije, Kostas Tsigaridis, Susanne E. Bauer, Tero Mielonen, Alf Kirkevåg, Øyvind Seland, Harri Kokkola, Ramiro Checa-Garcia, David Neubauer, Zak Kipling, Hitoshi Matsui, Paul Ginoux, Toshihiko Takemura, Philippe Le Sager, Samuel Rémy, Huisheng Bian, Mian Chin, Kai Zhang, Jialei Zhu, Svetlana G. Tsyro, Gabriele Curci, Anna Protonotariou, Ben Johnson, Joyce E. Penner, Nicolas Bellouin, Ragnhild B. Skeie, and Gunnar Myhre
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 11009–11032, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11009-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11009-2022, 2022
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Aerosol optical depth (AOD) errors for biomass burning aerosol (BBA) are evaluated in 18 global models against satellite datasets. Notwithstanding biases in satellite products, they allow model evaluations. We observe large and diverse model biases due to errors in BBA. Further interpretations of AOD diversities suggest large biases exist in key processes for BBA which require better constraining. These results can contribute to further model improvement and development.
Meng Gao, Kirk Knobelspiesse, Bryan A. Franz, Peng-Wang Zhai, Andrew M. Sayer, Amir Ibrahim, Brian Cairns, Otto Hasekamp, Yongxiang Hu, Vanderlei Martins, P. Jeremy Werdell, and Xiaoguang Xu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4859–4879, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4859-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4859-2022, 2022
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In this work, we assessed the pixel-wise retrieval uncertainties on aerosol and ocean color derived from multi-angle polarimetric measurements. Standard error propagation methods are used to compute the uncertainties. A flexible framework is proposed to evaluate how representative these uncertainties are compared with real retrieval errors. Meanwhile, to assist operational data processing, we optimized the computational speed to evaluate the retrieval uncertainties based on neural networks.
Haochi Che, Philip Stier, Duncan Watson-Parris, Hamish Gordon, and Lucia Deaconu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10789–10807, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10789-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10789-2022, 2022
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Extensive stratocumulus clouds over the south-eastern Atlantic (SEA) can lead to a cooling effect on the climate. A key pathway by which aerosols affect cloud properties is by acting as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Here, we investigated the source attribution of CCN in the SEA as well as the cloud responses. Our results show that aerosol nucleation contributes most to CCN in the marine boundary layer. In terms of emissions, anthropogenic sources contribute most to the CCN and cloud droplets.
Hanqing Kang, Bin Zhu, Gerrit de Leeuw, Bu Yu, Ronald J. van der A, and Wen Lu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10623–10634, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10623-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10623-2022, 2022
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This study quantified the contribution of each urban-induced meteorological effect (temperature, humidity, and circulation) to aerosol concentration. We found that the urban heat island (UHI) circulation dominates the UHI effects on aerosol. The UHI circulation transports aerosol and its precursor gases from the warmer lower boundary layer to the colder lower free troposphere and promotes the secondary formation of ammonium nitrate aerosol in the cold atmosphere.
Bernd Heinold, Holger Baars, Boris Barja, Matthew Christensen, Anne Kubin, Kevin Ohneiser, Kerstin Schepanski, Nick Schutgens, Fabian Senf, Roland Schrödner, Diego Villanueva, and Ina Tegen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9969–9985, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9969-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9969-2022, 2022
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The extreme 2019–2020 Australian wildfires produced massive smoke plumes lofted into the lower stratosphere by pyrocumulonimbus convection. Most climate models do not adequately simulate the injection height of such intense fires. By combining aerosol-climate modeling with prescribed pyroconvective smoke injection and lidar observations, this study shows the importance of the representation of the most extreme wildfire events for estimating the atmospheric energy budget.
Roland Vernooij, Patrik Winiger, Martin Wooster, Tercia Strydom, Laurent Poulain, Ulrike Dusek, Mark Grosvenor, Gareth J. Roberts, Nick Schutgens, and Guido R. van der Werf
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4271–4294, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4271-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4271-2022, 2022
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Landscape fires are a substantial emitter of greenhouse gases and aerosols. Previous studies have indicated savanna emission factors to be highly variable. Improving fire emission estimates, and understanding future climate- and human-induced changes in fire regimes, requires in situ measurements. We present a drone-based method that enables the collection of a large amount of high-quality emission factor measurements that do not have the biases of aircraft or surface measurements.
Enza Di Tomaso, Jerónimo Escribano, Sara Basart, Paul Ginoux, Francesca Macchia, Francesca Barnaba, Francesco Benincasa, Pierre-Antoine Bretonnière, Arnau Buñuel, Miguel Castrillo, Emilio Cuevas, Paola Formenti, María Gonçalves, Oriol Jorba, Martina Klose, Lucia Mona, Gilbert Montané Pinto, Michail Mytilinaios, Vincenzo Obiso, Miriam Olid, Nick Schutgens, Athanasios Votsis, Ernest Werner, and Carlos Pérez García-Pando
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 2785–2816, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2785-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2785-2022, 2022
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MONARCH reanalysis of desert dust aerosols extends the existing observation-based information for mineral dust monitoring by providing 3-hourly upper-air, surface and total column key geophysical variables of the dust cycle over Northern Africa, the Middle East and Europe, at a 0.1° horizontal resolution in a rotated grid, from 2007 to 2016. This work provides evidence of the high accuracy of this data set and its suitability for air quality and health and climate service applications.
Daniel Robbins, Caroline Poulsen, Steven Siems, and Simon Proud
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3031–3051, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3031-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3031-2022, 2022
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A neural network (NN)-based cloud mask for a geostationary satellite instrument, AHI, is developed using collocated data and is better at not classifying thick aerosols as clouds versus the Japanese Meteorological Association and the Bureau of Meteorology masks, identifying 1.13 and 1.29 times as many non-cloud pixels than each mask, respectively. The improvement during the day likely comes from including the shortest wavelength bands from AHI in the NN mask, which the other masks do not use.
Pawan Gupta, Prakash Doraiswamy, Jashwanth Reddy, Palak Balyan, Sagnik Dey, Ryan Chartier, Adeel Khan, Karmann Riter, Brandon Feenstra, Robert C. Levy, Nhu Nguyen Minh Tran, Olga Pikelnaya, Kurinji Selvaraj, Tanushree Ganguly, and Karthik Ganesan
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-140, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-140, 2022
Revised manuscript not accepted
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The use of low-cost sensors in air quality monitoring has been gaining interest across all walks of society. We present the results of evaluations of the PurpleAir against regulatory-grade PM2.5. The results indicate that with proper calibration, we can achieve bias-corrected PM2.5 data using PA sensors. Our study also suggests that pre-deployment calibrations developed at local or regional scales are required for the PA sensors to correct data from the field for scientific data analysis.
Athanasios Tsikerdekis, Nick A. J. Schutgens, Guangliang Fu, and Otto P. Hasekamp
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 3253–3279, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-3253-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-3253-2022, 2022
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In our study we quantify the ability of the future satellite sensor SPEXone, part of the NASA PACE mission, to estimate aerosol emissions. The sensor will be able to retrieve accurate information of aerosol light extinction and most importantly light absorption. We simulate SPEXone spatial coverage and combine it with an aerosol model. We found that SPEXone will be able to estimate species-specific (e.g. dust, sea salt, organic or black carbon, sulfates) aerosol emissions very accurately.
Jaakko Ahola, Tomi Raatikainen, Muzaffer Ege Alper, Jukka-Pekka Keskinen, Harri Kokkola, Antti Kukkurainen, Antti Lipponen, Jia Liu, Kalle Nordling, Antti-Ilari Partanen, Sami Romakkaniemi, Petri Räisänen, Juha Tonttila, and Hannele Korhonen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 4523–4537, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4523-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4523-2022, 2022
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Clouds are important for the climate, and cloud droplets have a significant role in cloud properties. Cloud droplets form when air rises and cools and water vapour condenses on small particles that can be natural or of anthropogenic origin. Currently, the updraft velocity, meaning how fast the air rises, is poorly represented in global climate models. In our study, we show three methods that will improve the depiction of updraft velocity and which properties are vital to updrafts.
Antti Lipponen, Jaakko Reinvall, Arttu Väisänen, Henri Taskinen, Timo Lähivaara, Larisa Sogacheva, Pekka Kolmonen, Kari Lehtinen, Antti Arola, and Ville Kolehmainen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 895–914, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-895-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-895-2022, 2022
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We have developed a machine-learning-based model that can be used to correct the Sentinel-3 satellite-based aerosol parameter data of the Synergy data product. The strength of the model is that the original satellite data processing does not have to be carried out again but the correction can be carried out with the data already available. We show that the correction significantly improves the accuracy of the satellite aerosol parameters.
Vinay Kayetha, Omar Torres, and Hiren Jethva
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 845–877, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-845-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-845-2022, 2022
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Existing measurements of spectral aerosol absorption are limited, particularly in the UV region. We use the synergy of satellite and ground measurements to derive spectral single scattering albedo of aerosols from the UV–visible spectrum. The resulting spectral SSAs are used to investigate seasonality in absorption for carbonaceous, dust, and urban aerosols. Regional aerosol absorption models that could be used to make reliable assumptions in satellite remote sensing of aerosols are derived.
Sujung Go, Alexei Lyapustin, Gregory L. Schuster, Myungje Choi, Paul Ginoux, Mian Chin, Olga Kalashnikova, Oleg Dubovik, Jhoon Kim, Arlindo da Silva, Brent Holben, and Jeffrey S. Reid
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 1395–1423, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1395-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1395-2022, 2022
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This paper presents a retrieval algorithm of iron-oxide species (hematite, goethite) content in the atmosphere from DSCOVR EPIC observations. Our results display variations within the published range of hematite and goethite over the main dust-source regions but show significant seasonal and spatial variability. This implies a single-viewing satellite instrument with UV–visible channels may provide essential information on shortwave dust direct radiative effects for climate modeling.
Boming Liu, Jianping Guo, Wei Gong, Yong Zhang, Lijuan Shi, Yingying Ma, Jian Li, Xiaoran Guo, Ad Stoffelen, Gerrit de Leeuw, and Xiaofeng Xu
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-26, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-26, 2022
Publication in AMT not foreseen
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Aeolus is the first satellite mission to directly observe wind profile information on a global scale. However, Aeolus wind products over China were thus far not evaluated by in-situ comparison. This work is the comparison of wind speed on a large scale between the Aeolus, ERA5 and RS , shedding important light on the data application of Aeolus wind products.
Matthew W. Christensen, Andrew Gettelman, Jan Cermak, Guy Dagan, Michael Diamond, Alyson Douglas, Graham Feingold, Franziska Glassmeier, Tom Goren, Daniel P. Grosvenor, Edward Gryspeerdt, Ralph Kahn, Zhanqing Li, Po-Lun Ma, Florent Malavelle, Isabel L. McCoy, Daniel T. McCoy, Greg McFarquhar, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Sandip Pal, Anna Possner, Adam Povey, Johannes Quaas, Daniel Rosenfeld, Anja Schmidt, Roland Schrödner, Armin Sorooshian, Philip Stier, Velle Toll, Duncan Watson-Parris, Robert Wood, Mingxi Yang, and Tianle Yuan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 641–674, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-641-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-641-2022, 2022
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Trace gases and aerosols (tiny airborne particles) are released from a variety of point sources around the globe. Examples include volcanoes, industrial chimneys, forest fires, and ship stacks. These sources provide opportunistic experiments with which to quantify the role of aerosols in modifying cloud properties. We review the current state of understanding on the influence of aerosol on climate built from the wide range of natural and anthropogenic laboratories investigated in recent decades.
Duncan Watson-Parris, Andrew Williams, Lucia Deaconu, and Philip Stier
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 7659–7672, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-7659-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-7659-2021, 2021
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The Earth System Emulator (ESEm) provides a fast and flexible framework for emulating a wide variety of Earth science datasets and tools for constraining (or tuning) models of any complexity. Three distinct use cases are presented that demonstrate the utility of ESEm and provide some insight into the use of machine learning for emulation in these different settings. The open-source Python package is freely available so that it might become a valuable tool for the community.
Nick Gorkavyi, Nickolay Krotkov, Can Li, Leslie Lait, Peter Colarco, Simon Carn, Matthew DeLand, Paul Newman, Mark Schoeberl, Ghassan Taha, Omar Torres, Alexander Vasilkov, and Joanna Joiner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7545–7563, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7545-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7545-2021, 2021
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The 21 June 2019 eruption of the Raikoke volcano produced significant amounts of volcanic aerosols (sulfate and ash) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas that penetrated into the lower stratosphere. We showed that the amount of SO2 decreases with a characteristic period of 8–18 d and the peak of sulfate aerosol lags the initial peak of SO2 by 1.5 months. We also examined the dynamics of an unusual stratospheric coherent circular cloud of SO2 and aerosol observed from 18 July to 22 September 2019.
Stefan Kinne, Peter North, Kevin Pearson, and Thomas Popp
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-954, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-954, 2021
Publication in ACP not foreseen
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To monitor aerosol properties and quantify aerosol climate impacts, ESA's Climate Change Initiative (CCI) supported the retrieval development for their dual-view sensors. Global maps of monthly AOD and AODf data are presented for 4 years: 1998 using ATSR-2, 2008 using AATSR and 2019 and 2020 using SLSTR sensor data. Application goals of this paper are to address decadal aerosol trends, to identify possible Covid-19 impacts in 2020 and to associate retrieved AOD with climate impacts.
Maria Sand, Bjørn H. Samset, Gunnar Myhre, Jonas Gliß, Susanne E. Bauer, Huisheng Bian, Mian Chin, Ramiro Checa-Garcia, Paul Ginoux, Zak Kipling, Alf Kirkevåg, Harri Kokkola, Philippe Le Sager, Marianne T. Lund, Hitoshi Matsui, Twan van Noije, Dirk J. L. Olivié, Samuel Remy, Michael Schulz, Philip Stier, Camilla W. Stjern, Toshihiko Takemura, Kostas Tsigaridis, Svetlana G. Tsyro, and Duncan Watson-Parris
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15929–15947, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15929-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15929-2021, 2021
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Absorption of shortwave radiation by aerosols can modify precipitation and clouds but is poorly constrained in models. A total of 15 different aerosol models from AeroCom phase III have reported total aerosol absorption, and for the first time, 11 of these models have reported in a consistent experiment the contributions to absorption from black carbon, dust, and organic aerosol. Here, we document the model diversity in aerosol absorption.
Anu Kauppi, Antti Kukkurainen, Antti Lipponen, Marko Laine, Antti Arola, Hannakaisa Lindqvist, and Johanna Tamminen
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2021-328, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2021-328, 2021
Revised manuscript not accepted
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We present a methodology in Bayesian framework for retrieving atmospheric aerosol optical depth and aerosol type from the pre-computed look-up tables (LUTs). Especially, we consider Bayesian model averaging and uncertainty originating from aerosol model selection and imperfect forward modelling. Our aim is to get more realistic uncertainty estimates. We have applied the methodology to TROPOMI/S5P satellite observations and evaluated the results against ground-based data from the AERONET.
Xinxin Ye, Pargoal Arab, Ravan Ahmadov, Eric James, Georg A. Grell, Bradley Pierce, Aditya Kumar, Paul Makar, Jack Chen, Didier Davignon, Greg R. Carmichael, Gonzalo Ferrada, Jeff McQueen, Jianping Huang, Rajesh Kumar, Louisa Emmons, Farren L. Herron-Thorpe, Mark Parrington, Richard Engelen, Vincent-Henri Peuch, Arlindo da Silva, Amber Soja, Emily Gargulinski, Elizabeth Wiggins, Johnathan W. Hair, Marta Fenn, Taylor Shingler, Shobha Kondragunta, Alexei Lyapustin, Yujie Wang, Brent Holben, David M. Giles, and Pablo E. Saide
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 14427–14469, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14427-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14427-2021, 2021
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Wildfire smoke has crucial impacts on air quality, while uncertainties in the numerical forecasts remain significant. We present an evaluation of 12 real-time forecasting systems. Comparison of predicted smoke emissions suggests a large spread in magnitudes, with temporal patterns deviating from satellite detections. The performance for AOD and surface PM2.5 and their discrepancies highlighted the role of accurately represented spatiotemporal emission profiles in improving smoke forecasts.
Xiaoxia Shang, Tero Mielonen, Antti Lipponen, Elina Giannakaki, Ari Leskinen, Virginie Buchard, Anton S. Darmenov, Antti Kukkurainen, Antti Arola, Ewan O'Connor, Anne Hirsikko, and Mika Komppula
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 6159–6179, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6159-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6159-2021, 2021
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The long-range-transported smoke particles from a Canadian wildfire event were observed with a multi-wavelength Raman polarization lidar and a ceilometer over Kuopio, Finland, in June 2019. The optical properties and the mass concentration estimations were reported for such aged smoke aerosols over northern Europe.
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Short summary
We intercompare 14 different datasets of satellite observations of aerosol. Such measurements are challenging but also provide the best opportunity to globally observe an atmospheric component strongly related to air pollution and climate change. Our study shows that most datasets perform similarly well on a global scale but that locally errors can be quite different. We develop a technique to estimate satellite errors everywhere, even in the absence of surface reference data.
We intercompare 14 different datasets of satellite observations of aerosol. Such measurements...
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