Climatic Influences on the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Aerosols over North America

University South Carolina Research Foundation, Columbia SC

Investigators

Abstract

Aerosols play an important role in the climate system by scattering and absorbing solar radiation and by affecting the physical properties of clouds. Despite the importance of aerosols, the processes that determine their spatial and temporal variability are not well understood. Furthermore, all methods for quantifying turbidity, which is the total amount of aerosol in the atmosphere, suffer from a major constraint in that they require cloudless sky conditions. This restriction produces gaps in the turbidity record and a sampling bias, which has led to questionable inferences about the variability of aerosols. This research will use meteorological and climatological analyses, together with aerosol data from 40 stations, to explain temporal and spatial variability in aerosol properties over continental North America. These analyses will then be used to provide aerosol climatologies (statistical summaries of aerosol properties) that will be more representative than those presently available. This research will permit improved aerosol parameterizations in regional and global climate models, which will help elucidate the relative roles of aerosols and greenhouse gases in the climate system. The research will therefore further our knowledge of the factors that influence climate and climate change and this will help policy makers prepare informed climate change policies.