Mauna Loa Aerosol Backscatter Intecomparison Experiment (MABIE)

Measurements of CO2 aerosol backscatter coefficients and other aerosol physicochemical properties were obtained in remote Pacific free tropospheric airmasses at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. The experiment used an attenuated total reflection impactor (Johnson et al., 1983), a dispersive infrared spectrophotometer, and a high-resolution optical particle counter. Preliminary results suggest that sulfate compounds dominate background backscatter properties at CO2 wavelengths between 9 and 10 microns.