Derivation of microphysical properties
Due to their role in the physico-chemistry of the atmosphere and hence in the global circulation and climate, stratospheric aerosols are known to be an important component of the atmosphere. Space experiment like SAGE II, SAGE III, POAM II, POAM III, ... provide global insight in the extinction coefficients of stratospheric aerosols.
But a correct understanding and modeling of the impact of aerosols on climate and global circulation requires the knowledge of aerosol microphysical properties such as the particle number density, the mode radius and dispersion of the particle size distribution.
A model that connects these parameters with extinctions is available: The Mie theory (for spherical particles). So, these parameters can be retrieved by optical inversion of the spectral extinction coefficients. As the inversion of spectral extinctions is an ill-conditioned problem, specific algorithms need to be elaborated.
The particle number density, the mode radius and dispersion of the particle size distribution presented here were retrieved by the way of a regularized inversion method developed at BIRA-IASB. Detailed information on the retrieval method can be found in the following papers.
References:
- C. Bingen, F. Vanhellemont and D. Fussen "A new regularized method for retrieval of stratospheric aerosol size distributions applied to 16 years of SAGE II data (1984-2000): method, results and validation", Annales Geophysicae(2003)21:797-804, European Geosciences Union 2003
- C. Bingen, D. Fussen and F. Vanhellemont, “Characterization of stratospheric aerosol distribution: Evolution of volcanic and non volcanic aerosol components observed through 16 years SAGE II data (1984-2000)”, accepted for publication in Volcanism and the Earth’s Atmosphere, A. Robock and C. Oppenheimer Eds., Geophysical Monograph Series, Vol 139, American Geophysical Union, 2003
- C. Bingen, D. Fussen and F. Vanhellemont, “A global climatology of stratospheric aerosol size distribution parameters derived from SAGE II data over the period 1984-2000, I. Methodology and climatological observations”, accepted for publication in Journal of Geophysical Research, 2003
- C. Bingen, D. Fussen and F. Vanhellemont, “A global climatology of stratospheric aerosol size distribution parameters derived from SAGE II data over the period 1984-2000,II. Reference data”, accepted for publication in Journal of Geophysical Research, 2003
