Measurements of stratospheric volcanic aerosol optical depth from NOAA TIROS Observational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) observations

Abstract

We show that the infrared optical depth of stratospheric volcanic aerosols produced by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in June 1991 may be retrieved from the observations of the High-Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS-2) on board the polar meteorological satellites of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Evolution of the concentration in time and in space, in particular the migration of the aerosols from the tropics to the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, is found to be consistent with our knowledge of the consequences of this eruption. The method relies on the analysis of the differences between the satellite observations and simulations from an aerosol-free radiative transfer model using collocated radiosonde data as the prime input. Thus aerosol optical depths are retrieved directly without making assumptions about the aerosol size distribution or absorption coefficient. The aerosol optical depths reached a maximum in August 1991 in the tropical zone (0.055 at 8.3 μ, 0.03 at 4.0 μ, and 0.02 at 11.1 μ). The peak occurred in November 1991 in the southern midlatitudes and in March/April 1992 in the northern midlatitudes. A reanalysis of the almost 25 year archive of NOAA TIROS-N Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) observations holds considerable promise for improved knowledge of the atmosphere loading in volcanic aerosols. Copyright 2004 by the American Geophysical Union.