Towards the Development of Global Scale Transferability of Inference Schemes for Radiative Forcing Functions under the CEOP Initiative

Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science
University of Maryland, College Park


Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science
 


Background

Approach

Parameters

Results
   
Available Data

References

Collaboration

Acknowledgements

Contacts

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Selected  Results

African Monsoon Region

Impact of Aerosols on Shortwave Flux Retrieval
The goal of the AMMA program is to improve understanding of the West African monsoon (WAM) and the factors that determine its variability on daily to inter-annual timescales. Radiative fluxes are needed for addressing the regional-scale processes of the WAM, where land-surface feedbacks are important. The AMMA region is frequented by dust outbreaks over Africa. It is important to incorporate the effects of dust on the radiative fluxes that reach the surface and control the hydrological cycle.

Figure 1. Monthly mean downwelling shortwave flux (W/m2) for January, April, July, and October 2004.

 

  Figure 2. The impact of aerosols on the surface shortwave radiation over the Atlantic ocean. 
  
  Figure 3. Aerosol optical depth as derived from  MODIS observations during July 2004.

 

 

 

 

Maintained by Chuan Li cli@atmos.umd.edu