Satellite observations cap the atmospheric organic aerosol budget

Heald, C.L., D.A. Ridley, S. Kreidenweis, and E. Drury (2010), Satellite observations cap the atmospheric organic aerosol budget, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L24808, doi:10.1029/2010GL045095.
Abstract

Limited understanding of the production and loss of organic aerosol (OA) to the atmosphere has resulted in poorly constrained source estimates ranging from 140 to 910 TgCyr−1 [Goldstein and Galbally, 2007]. We use satellite observations to quantitatively estimate the atmospheric burden of organic aerosol and the associated production. We find that attributing the mid‐visible continental aerosol optical depth (AOD) observed by the MISR satellite entirely to OA implies a global source of 430 TgCyr−1 of sub‐micron OA. We use a model (GEOS‐Chem) to remove the contribution of inorganic aerosol, dust and soot from the observed AOD and derive a continental OA production of 150 TgCyr−1 (equivalent burden of 2.5 TgC), with 80% uncertainty. This result significantly reduces the uncertainty in the global OA budget and provides an upper limit for the “missing source” of OA.

PDF of Publication
Download from publisher's website
Research Program
Tropospheric Composition Program (TCP)

 

Disclaimer: This material is being kept online for historical purposes. Though accurate at the time of publication, it is no longer being updated. The page may contain broken links or outdated information, and parts may not function in current web browsers. Visit https://espo.nasa.gov for information about our current projects.