Support to the Aeolus Validation and Calibration Through Airborne Aerosol In-situ Observations in the Tropics

Every summer, the wind carries large amounts of desert dust particles from the hot and dry Sahara Desert in northern Africa across the Atlantic Ocean. Data from the Copernicus Sentinel satellites and ESA’s Aeolus satellite detect the extent of summer dust plume on its journey across the Atlantic.

In addition to the wind, Aeolus data provides valuable information regarding the altitude and vertical extent of the aerosol layer, compared to downward-looking imagers, as it can determine the height at which the dust layer is travelling.

The extension of the project in 2021 with an additional measurement campaign in Cape Verde in September 2022 does not change the primary objectives. It adds to the secondary objectives and addresses two additional scientific questions:

• Why do dust aerosols remain in the atmosphere much longer than the models predict?
• Does the heating by aerosols in the Saharan Dust Layer influence tropical convection?

These questions will be addressed in cooperation with ground based measurements, vertical sondes and aircraft measurements by NASA.

The secondary objectives relate to the understanding of the contributions of different anthropogenic and natural sources to the aerosol fine fraction, the complex mixtures in the coarse fraction, and their climate effects. We will attempt to separate the effects on the climate of dust and carbonaceous aerosols in the West-African outflow.

Using in-situ measurements, we will complement the Aeolus CAL/VAL scientific objectives, as well as the primary and secondary scientific objectives of the subprojects, such as ASKOS.

University of Nova Gorica, Haze d.o.o., Aerovizija d.o.o., GLWF are partners in the September 2022 JATAC – Joint Aeolus Tropical Atlantic Campaign in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), NOA (National Observatory of Athens), NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), University in Washington and Miami.

The planet Earth is getting warmer.
Black Carbon adds more than 1 W/m² to the greenhouse effect.
Black Carbon is the second-largest contributor to global warming after CO₂.
7 million people worldwide die every year due to air pollution.
Sea level is rising fast.