An Evaluation of Remote Sensing of the Single Scattering Albedo of Aerosols During the Aerosol IOP

Cairns, B.(a), Gianelli, S.M.(a), Carlson, B.E.(b), and Lacis, A.A.(b), Columbia University (a), NASA GISS (b)
Fourteenth Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Science Team Meeting

It has long been known that diffuse sky radiance and irradiance measurements are sensitive to the single scattering albedo of aerosols. The main difficulties in exploiting this sensitivity to try and remotely estimate the single scattering albedo of aerosols are uncertainties in the albedo and bidirectional reflectance distribution function of the surface and uncertainties in the calibration of the instruments used to make the measurements. The surface albedo measurements that are currently being provided to the ARM program allow the surface reflectance properties to be reasonably well constrained, while the use of direct to diffuse ratios in MFRSR and RSS measurements eliminates the absolute radiometric calibration of these sensors as a source of uncertainty. In this poster we examine the use of MFRSR instruments to estimate aerosol single scattering albedo during the aerosol IOP that took place during May of 2003 and compare both the MFRSR and CIMEL estimates of single scattering albedo to the extensive set of in situ single scattering albedo measurements that were obtained both aloft and at the surface during the IOP.

Note: This is the poster abstract presented at the meeting; an extended version was not provided by the author(s).