Investigations of Atmospheric Aerosols and Clouds in Marine Environments

Abstract

Atmospheric aerosols and clouds impact Earth’s radiation balance and play an important role in the hydrological cycle. In order to better characterize the behavior and impacts of clouds and aerosols in marine environments, studies were performed in coastal California, the Philippines, and the Western North Atlantic Ocean (WNAO) region. In Marina, California and Metro Manila, Philippines, size-resolved aerosol measurements were collected to examine physicochemical characteristics of the ambient particulate matter (PM). While both sites lie in coastal regions, Metro Manila represents a highly polluted megacity, while Marina experiences far less anthropogenic influence. In Marina, the impacts of mixing marine emissions with wildfire emissions from the western United States were examined to identify changes in the PM properties, including chloride and bromide depletion. In Metro Manila, changes in measured PM properties were linked to instances of long-range aerosol transport from the Maritime Continent and continental East Asia using the measured PM, satellite data, and model results. In addition to more aerosol-focused studies, the behaviors of clouds and aerosols were examined in the WNAO region, and properties of marine stratocumulus clouds were studied off the coast of California. In the WNAO region, a variety of cloud types are present; therefore, weather states (WSs) derived from satellite-borne retrievals were used to examine different cloud regimes. The characteristics of these WSs, including aerosol and radiative properties, were examined on a seasonal basis at two sites within the WNAO region. In contrast to the WNAO, off the coast of California in the summertime marine stratocumulus are the dominant cloud type. The properties of these clouds, including their thermodynamic structure and microphysical properties, were examined to better inform satellite retrievals.