NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Inferring Absorbing Organic Carbon Content from AERONET DataBlack carbon, light-absorbing organic carbon (often called brown carbon) and mineral dust are the major light-absorbing aerosols. Currently the sources and formation of brown carbon aerosol in particular are not well understood. In this study we estimated globally the amount of light absorbing organic carbon and black carbon from AERONET measurements. We find that the columnar absorbing organic carbon (brown carbon) levels in biomass burning regions of South-America and Africa are relatively high (about 15-20 magnesium per square meters during biomass burning season), while the concentrations are significantly lower in urban areas in US and Europe. However, we estimated significant absorbing organic carbon amounts from the data of megacities of newly industrialized countries, particularly in India and China, showing also clear seasonality with peak values up to 30-35 magnesium per square meters during the coldest season, likely caused by the coal and biofuel burning used for heating. We also compared our retrievals with the modeled organic carbon by global Oslo CTM for several sites. Model values are higher in biomass burning regions than AERONET-based retrievals, while opposite is true in urban areas in India and China.
Document ID
20110007909
Acquisition Source
Langley Research Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Arola, A.
(Finnish Meteorological Inst. Finland)
Schuster, G.
(NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Myhre, G.
(Center for International Climate and Environmental Research Oslo, Norway)
Kazadzis, S.
(National Observatory of Athens Greece)
Dey, S.
(Illinois Univ. at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, IL, United States)
Tripathi, S. N.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2011
Subject Category
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Report/Patent Number
NF1676L-11204
Funding Number(s)
WBS: WBS 281945.02.31.01.22
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
No Preview Available