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  1. Home
  2. Essential Climate Variables
  3. Aerosols

 

Aerosols

Atmospheric aerosols are minor constituents of the atmosphere by mass, but a critical component in terms of impacts on the climate and especially climate changes. Aerosols influence the global radiation balance by directly scattering solar radiation and indirectly through influencing cloud reflectivity, cloud cover and cloud lifetime.

  Domain: Atmosphere
  Subdomain: Atmospheric Composition
  Scientific Area: Physical Properties
  ECV Steward:  
  Products:  Aerosol Light Extinction Vertical Profile (Troposphere), Aerosol Light Extinction Vertical Profile (Stratosphere), Multi-wavelength Aerosol Optical Depth, Aerosol Single Scattering Albedo, Chemical Composition of Aerosol Particles, Number of Cloud Condensation Nuclei, Aerosol Number Size Distribution

 


ECV Products and Requirements

These products and requirements reflect the Implementation Plan 2022 (GCOS-244).

The requirements are found in the complete 2022 ECVs Requirements document as well: ECV Aerosols.

Products     Aerosol Light Extinction Vertical Profile (Troposphere) Aerosol Light Extinction Vertical Profile (Stratosphere)     Multi-wavelength Aerosol Optical Depth     Aerosol Single Scattering Albedo
  (*) Unit Values Values   Unit Values   Unit Values
Horizontal Resolution G km 50 200   km 20   km 50
B 100 500 (lat.) x 6000 (long.)   100   200
T 500     500   500
Vertical Resolution G km 0.2 1     -   km 1
B 1 1 (2)   -   5
T 2 2   -    
Temporal Resolution G d 1 5   d 0.01   d 0.01
B 30 5   1   1
T 90 30   30   30
Timeliness G y 0,003     d 1   d 1
B 0.08     7   7
T 1 1   30   30
Required Measurement Uncertainty (2-sigma) G % 20 20   % or AOD 4% or
0.02
  dimensionless 0.1
B 40 40   10%
or 0.030
  0.2
T 60     20%
or 0.06
  0.4
Stability G %/decade 10 20   %/ decade or AOD/ decade 2% or
0.01
  %/decade 0.1
B 20 40   4% or
0.02
  0.4
T 30     10%
or 0.04
  1

 

Products   Chemical Composition of Aerosol Particles Number of Cloud Condensation Nuclei Aerosol Number Size Distribution
  (*) Unit Values Values Values
Horizontal Resolution G km 50 50 50
B 100 100 100
T 500 500 500
Vertical Resolution G km 1 1 1
B 5 5 5
T      
Temporal Resolution G d 1 0.5 0.04
B 30 1 1
T 90 30 30
Timeliness G d 0.1 0.04 0.25
B 1 1 30
T 365 365 365
Required Measurement Uncertainty (2-sigma) G % 20 20 40% in number and 20% on size
B 40 40 60% in number in 40% in size
T 60 60 40% in number for fine- mode (0.05-0.5um) and 100% in number for coarse- mode (0.5-15um)
Stability G %/decade 2 - 2
B 2 - 4
T 4 - 10

 

(*) Goal (G): an ideal requirement above which further improvements are not necessary. Breakthrough (B): an intermediate level between threshold and goal which, if achieved, would result in a significant improvement for the targeted application. The breakthrough value may also indicate the level at which specified uses within climate monitoring become possible. It may be appropriate to have different breakthrough values for different uses. Threshold (T): the minimum requirement to be met to ensure that data are useful


Data Sources

This list provides sources for openly accessible data sets with worldwide coverage for which metadata is available. It is curated by the respective GCOS ECV Steward(s). The list does not claim to be complete. Anyone with a suitable dataset who wishes it to be added to this list should contact the GCOS Secretariat.


In Situ Data:

  • Aerosol Robotoc Network (Aeronet)

https://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/

  • NASA Micro-Pulse Lidar Network (MPLNET )

https://mplnet.gsfc.nasa.gov/data?v=V3

  • World Data Centre for Aerosols (WDCA)

http://www.gaw-wdca.org/

  • Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA)

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/weather-balloon/integrated-global-radiosonde-archive

  • Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC)

http://www.ndaccdemo.org/data


Reanalysis:

  • REANALYSES.ORG (Inventory for Reanalysis)

https://reanalyses.org 

  • Monitoring Atmospheric Composition & Climate (MACC), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)

http://apps.ecmwf.int/datasets/data/macc-ghg-inversions


Satellite:

  • Satellite ECV Inventory by the CEOS/CGMS Working Group on Climate (WGClimate)

http://climatemonitoring.info/ecvinventory 

 

EU Copernicus

 

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