Measurement of Aerosol Optical Properties and Radiative Forcing
A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Aerosols".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 500
Special Issue Editor
2. NOAA-ISET Center, North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC 27401, USA
Interests: laser spectroscopy; aerosol optical and physiochemical properties; air quality research; aerosol health impacts; chemical reaction dynamics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Atmospheric aerosols have multiple sources, both natural and anthropogenic. These particles are important variables in the Earth’s energy budget. Aerosols influence the energy balance either by directly absorbing and scattering shortwave and absorbing and emitting longwave radiation (direct effect) or by affecting the size distribution of cloud droplets (indirect effect). Studies on the radiative effect of aerosols are still ongoing by several research groups, but the quantitative effect of aerosols on the energy balance and the climate system is still largely uncertain. The uncertainty is a result of uncertainty in the measurement of the optical properties of aerosols which depends on several variables: relative humidity, aging conditions, combustion conditions, fuel type and source, and morphology. Furthermore, the measurements of aerosols’ optical properties are either limited to a specific source region or confined to a limited wavelength range. Internally versus externally mixed particles can have very different optical properties.
Whereas the optical properties of aerosols in North America, Europe, and to some extent Asia and Latin America have been and are continuing to be investigated, laboratory and field campaigns in Africa have only been investigated in a few field studies. Until recently, global inventories from North America, Europe, and Asia have been used for air quality and climate change modeling in Africa. It has been shown that aerosol optical depths simulated with models using these inventories do not agree with satellite observations. There are limited laboratory studies that have systematically examined the optical properties of aerosols derived, for example, from burning fuels representative of the tropics in sub-Saharan Africa.
This Special Issue invites articles on laboratory field and modeling studies of the optical properties and their radiative impacts of aerosols from all sources, natural and anthropogenic, including biomass burning, fossil fuel burning, and dust aerosols in the least-studied regions of the world such as Africa, etc.
Dr. Solomon Bililign
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- biomass burning aerosols
- scattering and absorption by aerosols
- aerosol hygroscopic properties
- aerosol morphology
- fuel type and burning conditions
