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A View of Earth's Aerosol System from Space to Your Office ChairAerosols are tiny particles and droplets suspended in the air. Each day you breathe in about 10 billion of them, about a half a million per breath. They are formed in nature by volcanoes, dust storms, sea spray, and emissions from vegetation. Humans create aerosols and alter their natural sources by burning fossil fuels and modifying land cover. Fires are another important source of aerosols; some are natural, such as wildfires started by lightning strikes, while others are from human-caused burning of vegetation for cooking, heating, and land clearing. Aerosols have complex effects on Earth's climate. In general, they cool the surface by reflecting (scattering) radiation from the sun back into space. Dust and smoke absorb solar radiation and heat the atmosphere where they are concentrated. Aerosols change the properties of clouds. Indeed, it would be very difficult to form clouds in the atmosphere without aerosols to act as 'seeds' for water to condense on. In aerosol polluted environments clouds tend to have smaller droplets than clouds formed in cleaner environments; these polluted clouds appear brighter from space because they reflect more sunlight, and they may persist longer and not rain as intensely. Aerosols also affect local air quality and visibility. Data collected by NASA satellites over the past decade have provided an unprecedented view of Earth's aerosol distribution and dramatically increased our understanding of where aerosols come from and just how far they travel in the atmosphere. In this talk I will discuss observations of aerosols from space and how they inform numerical transport models attempting to simulate the global aerosol system.
Document ID
20080039183
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Colarco, Peter
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
September 12, 2008
Subject Category
Geophysics
Meeting Information
Meeting: Department of Geosciences: Stout Lecture
Location: Lincoln, Nebraska
Country: United States
Start Date: September 12, 2008
Sponsors: Nebraska Univ.
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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