All-sky direct aerosol radiative effects estimated from integrated A-Train satellite measurements

Kacenelenbogen, Meloë S. F.; Kuehn, Ralph; Amarasinghe, Nandana D.; Meyer, Kerry G.; Nowottnick, Edward P.; Vaughan, Mark A.; Chen, Hong; Schmidt, Sebastian; Ferrare, Richard A.; Hair, Johnathan W.; Levy, Robert C.; Yu, Hongbin; Zuidema, Paquita; Holz, Robert; Marais, Willem

doi:10.5194/acp-25-15875-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 22

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-15875-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-15875-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 22

Research article

|

18 Nov 2025

Research article |

| 18 Nov 2025

All-sky direct aerosol radiative effects estimated from integrated A-Train satellite measurements

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

Data sets

CALIPSO Lidar Level 2 1 km Cloud Layer, V4-51 NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/CALIOP/CALIPSO/CAL_LID_L2_01kmCLay-Standard-V4-51

CALIPSO Lidar Level 2 5 km Merged Layer, V4-51 NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/CALIOP/CALIPSO/CAL_LID_L2_05kmMLay-Standard-V4-51

CALIPSO Lidar Level 2 Aerosol Profile, V4-51 NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/CALIOP/CALIPSO/CAL_LID_L2_05kmAPro-Standard-V4-51

VIIRS Atmosphere L2 Cloud Properties Product, Version-1 S. Platnick et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/VIIRS/CLDPROP_L2_VIIRS_SNPP.001

Short summary

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.