Shortwave aerosol radiative forcing over cloud-free oceans from Terra: 1. Angular models for aerosols

Abstract

Using multiple satellite instruments, we demonstrate a new empirical method for obtaining shortwave (SW) aerosol angular distribution models (ADMs) over cloud-free oceans. We use nearly a year's worth of multispectral Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data to obtain aerosol properties within a Clouds and Earth Radiant Energy System (CERES) footprint and Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) data to obtain near surface wind speed. The new aerosol ADMs are built as functions of near-surface ocean wind speed and MODIS aerosol optical depth at 0.55 μm (τ0.55). Among the new features are ADMs as a function of the ratio of fine mode to total aerosol optical depth (η), which contains infortnation on aerosol type, and the combination of the CERES rotation azimuth plane scan mode CERES data and MODIS aerosol products to characterize aerosol properties over glint regions. The instantaneous aerosol forcing efficiencies (SW flux per unit optical depth at τ0.55) are 80.5, 63.1, and 73.0 Wm-2, derived using the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), and the current Terra ADMs, respectively. This study highlights the necessity for building empirical aerosol ADMs as a function of wind speed, τ 0.55 and η, and gives examples of newly constructed aerosol ADMs over cloud-free oceans. We conclude that an overall uncertainty of 10% will be introduced in the derived SW aerosol direct forcing over cloud-free oceans if the ADMs are constructed without considering aerosol darkening effect over glint regions and aerosol brightening over nonglint regions (like ERBE ADMs) or the variations in aerosol properties (like TRMM ADMs). In a companion paper (Zhang et al., 2005), these new ADMs are used to calculate the shortwave aerosol radiative forcing over the global oceans. Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.