Implications of multiple scattering on the assessment of black carbon aerosol radiative forcing

Nair, Vijayakumar S and Babu, Suresh S and Moorthy, Krishna K and Satheesh, SK (2014) Implications of multiple scattering on the assessment of black carbon aerosol radiative forcing. In: JOURNAL OF QUANTITATIVE SPECTROSCOPY & RADIATIVE TRANSFER, 148 . pp. 134-140.

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Abstract

The effects of radiative coupling between scattering and absorbing aerosols, in an external mixture, on the aerosol radiative forcing (ARF) due to black carbon (BC), its sensitivity to the composite aerosol loading and composition, and surface reflectance are investigated using radiative transfer model simulations. The ARF due to BC is found to depend significantly on the optical properties of the `neighboring' (non-BC) aerosol species. The scattering due to these species significantly increases the top of the atmospheric warming due to black carbon aerosols, and significant changes in the radiative forcing efficiency of BC. This is especially significant over dark surfaces (such as oceans), despite the ARF due to BC being higher over snow and land-surfaces. The spatial heterogeneity of this effect (coupling or multiple scattering by neighboring aerosol species) imposes large uncertainty in the estimation ARF due to BC aerosols, especially over the oceans. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	JOURNAL OF QUANTITATIVE SPECTROSCOPY & RADIATIVE TRANSFER
Publisher:	PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belongs to the PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, THE BOULEVARD, LANGFORD LANE, KIDLINGTON, OXFORD OX5 1GB, ENGLAND.
Keywords:	Aerosol radiative forcing; Multiple scattering; Black carbon
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Centre for Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
Date Deposited:	08 Nov 2014 04:56
Last Modified:	08 Nov 2014 04:56
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/50147

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