Naslov
The radiative impact of out-of-cloud aerosol hygroscopic growth during the summer monsoon in southern West Africa

Autori
Haslett, Sophie L. ; Taylor, Jonathan W. ; Deetz, Konrad ; Vogel, Bernhard ; Babić, Karmen ; Kalthoff, Norbert ; Wieser, Andreas ; Dione, Cheikh ; Lohou, Fabienne ; Brito, Joel ; Dupuy, Regis ; Schwarzenboeck, Alfons ; Zieger, Paul ; Coe, Hugh

Izvornik
Atmospheric chemistry and physics (1680-7316) 19 (2019), 3; 1505-1520

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, članak, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
hygroscopic growth ; aerosol optical depth ; West Africa ; DACCIWA

Sažetak
Water in the atmosphere exists as both vapour and liquid water contained in particles. At high humidities, more water vapour condenses onto particles and causes them to swell, sometimes up to several times their original size. This significant change in size and chemical composition is termed hygroscopic growth and alters a particle's optical properties. Even in unsaturated conditions, this can change the aerosol direct effect, for example by increasing the extinction of incoming sunlight. This can have an impact on a region's energy balance and affect visibility. Here, aerosol and relative humidity measurements collected from aircraft and radiosondes during the Dynamics-Aerosol- Chemistry-Cloud Interactions in West Africa (DACCIWA) campaign were used to estimate the effect of highly humid layers of air on aerosol optical properties during the monsoon season in southern West Africa. The effects of hygroscopic growth in this region are of particular interest due to the regular occurrence of high humidity and the high levels of pollution in the region. The Zdanovskii, Stokes and Robinson (ZSR) mixing rule is used to estimate the hygroscopic growth of particles under different conditions based on chemical composition. These results are used to estimate the aerosol optical depth (AOD) for 63 relative humidity profiles. A static aerosol profile was assumed. Therefore, these results show the extent of the AOD frequency distribution that can be explained by humidity alone, rather than predicting actual AOD values. The median AOD in the region from these calculations was 0.46, which compares to a median of 0.36 measured by sun photometers. The shape of the AOD frequency distribution was largely comparable to that of the sun photometer measurements, demonstrating that relative humidity is able to account for a large part of the region's AOD variability. Humid layers are found to have the most significant impact on AOD when they reach relative humidities greater than 98%, which can result in a wet AOD up to seven times larger than the dry AOD. Unsaturated humid layers were found to reach these high levels of relative humidity in 37% of observed cases. Aerosol concentrations in southern West Africa are projected to increase substantially in the coming years ; results presented here show that the presence of highly humid layers in the region is likely to enhance the consequent effect on AOD significantly.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Geofizika

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