Distribution of atmospheric aerosols and CO2 lidar backscatter simulation

Development of a Global Wind Measurement Satellite System (WINDSAT) (NOAA, 1981) requires a knowledge of the global characteristics of the free tropospheric and lower stratospheric aerosol. In particular, there is a need to document the behavior of the aerosol backscattering function, at CO2 laser wavelengths, beta sub CO2, as a function of space and time. There is, however, a relative lack of data for the free troposphere, particularly over the remoter regions of the globe, as compared with that for the boundary layer and the stratosphere. Moreover, because of variations in concentration that occur as a function of space and time, large data sets are required to obtain meaningful averages. A recent study by Kent et al. (1985) uses three distinct tropospheric aerosol data sets in order to obtain an improved global model of the general aerosol characteristics, including variation of beta sub CO2 with latitude, season, and altitude. The more important findings are summarized.