Publication Abstracts

Waquet et al. 2009

Waquet, F., J. Riédi, L.-C. Labonnote, P. Goloub, B. Cairns, J.-L. Deuzé, and D. Tanré, 2009: Aerosol remote sensing over clouds using the A-Train observations. J. Atmos. Sci., 66, 2468-2480, doi:10.1175/2009JAS3026.1.

The detection of aerosol above clouds is critical for the estimate of both the aerosol and cloud radiative impacts. In this study, we present a new method to retrieve the aerosol properties over clouds that uses the multi-angle polarization measurements of the POlarization and Directionnality of Earth Reflectances (POLDER/PARASOL) instrument. The method is illustrated and applied to a case study exploiting the coincident observations from other passive and active sensors of the A-Train satellite constellation. The case study is relative to an elevated biomass burning aerosol layer originated from the Southern Africa and transported over low-level clouds extended over the Atlantic Ocean. It is shown that the comparison between the cloud top heights retrieved with the different passive techniques developed for the A-Train sensors can be used to detect the presence of aerosols above clouds. The analysis of the PARASOL observations showed that the aerosols significantly affect the polarized light reflected by the clouds over the 80-120° scattering angle range and in the rainbow region. A single scattering model allowed us to reproduce the polarization observations and to retrieve an estimate of the aerosol layer optical thickness of 0.225 at 0.865 µm. The retrieved aerosol optical thicknesses over clouds agree quantitatively with the closest ones retrieved over clear sky ocean (±0.04 as a maximum departure), demonstrating the value of the method. This innovative technique based solely on passive measurements is expected to provide a better understanding of aerosol properties in regions where significant cloud cover usually prevents the retrieval of aerosol optical thickness. As such, this new retrieval method can provide significant and valuable information about radiative impact of clouds and aerosols where they can potentially interact strongly with each other.

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BibTeX Citation

@article{wa04300u,
  author={Waquet, F. and Riédi, J. and Labonnote, L.-C. and Goloub, P. and Cairns, B. and Deuzé, J.-L. and Tanré, D.},
  title={Aerosol remote sensing over clouds using the A-Train observations},
  year={2009},
  journal={Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences},
  volume={66},
  pages={2468--2480},
  doi={10.1175/2009JAS3026.1},
}

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RIS Citation

TY  - JOUR
ID  - wa04300u
AU  - Waquet, F.
AU  - Riédi, J.
AU  - Labonnote, L.-C.
AU  - Goloub, P.
AU  - Cairns, B.
AU  - Deuzé, J.-L.
AU  - Tanré, D.
PY  - 2009
TI  - Aerosol remote sensing over clouds using the A-Train observations
JA  - J. Atmos. Sci.
JO  - Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
VL  - 66
SP  - 2468
EP  - 2480
DO  - 10.1175/2009JAS3026.1
ER  -

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