Effect of tropospheric aerosols upon atmospheric infrared cooling rates

The effect of tropospheric aerosols on atmospheric infrared cooling rates is investigated by the use of recent models of infrared gaseous absorption. A radiative model of the atmosphere that incorporates dust as an absorber and scatterer of infrared radiation is constructed by employing the exponential kernel approximation to the radiative transfer equation. Scattering effects are represented in terms of a single scattering albedo and an asymmetry factor. The model is applied to estimate the effect of an aerosol layer made of spherical quartz particles on the infrared cooling rate. Calculations performed for a reference wavelength of 0.55 microns show an increased greenhouse effect, where the net upward flux at the surface is reduced by 10% owing to the strongly enhanced downward emission. There is a substantial increase in the cooling rate near the surface, but the mean cooling rate throughout the lower troposphere was only 10%.