Oslo joint seminar in atmospheric, ocean and climate science, May 9

Title: Are aerosol remote sensing products from satellite good enough to evaluate models?

Speaker: Nick Schutgens, VU Amsterdam

Speaker:

Nick Schutgens, VU Amsterdam

Abstract: Satellite data offer interesting opportunities to evaluate global aerosol models but the retrieval of aerosol optical thickness (to say nothing of angstrom exponent or single scattering albedo) comes with large uncertainties. Intercomparison of satellite datasets can help understand this uncertainty without recourse to the very sparse measurements of the ground-based reference data provided by AERONET. Here we evaluate and intercompare 15 different products derived from 4 different sensors on 6 different platforms. This intercomparison/evaluation is not only done on a “pixel” level but also on data averaged over weeks & regions, arguably the scale at which the data will be used for model evaluation.  We show that although differences amongst products (and errors versus AERONET) can be large, it is nevertheless possible to perform robust evaluation of global AEROCOM models. Furthermore, in certain situations it seems possible to interpret the global model error as due to deficiencies in emission inventories used by the models. In addition, we will discuss representativity issues when using AERONET observations.

 

What is the Joint Oslo Seminar (JOS):

Atmospheric and climate sciences have a stronghold in Oslo among the four institutions University of Oslo, the Meteorological Institute, CICERO and NILU. This joint seminar invites renowned international experts to contribute to an informal series of lectures, meant to create interaction with the Oslo atmospheric and climate science community on recent highlights and analysis in the field. All seminars will be held on Thursdays (Noon -1pm) and lunch (sandwiches) will be served on a “first-come-first-served”-basis.

Published Dec. 10, 2018 6:14 PM - Last modified Aug. 29, 2022 11:43 AM