Atlantic atmospheric aerosol studies: 2. Compendium of airborne backscatter measurements at 10.6μm

Abstract

The airborne backscatter measurements at 10.6 μm, from the South Atlantic Backscatter Lidar Experiment (SABLE) and the Global Atmospheric Backscatter Lidar Experiment (GABLE) programs over the Atlantic, are gathered together and presented. Plots of backscatter versus altitude are shown for 80 flight sequences. These data comprising about 4×10 5 measurements from over 180 flight hours is statistically analyzed. The material is distributed in altitude (1 km) and backscatter (half decade) intervals and presented in tabular and histogram form for six principal regions and seasons: South Atlantic summer, South Atlantic winter, far‐North Atlantic spring, mid‐Atlantic spring/summer, and Northeast Atlantic winter and summer. Several features of the results are discussed, including the incidence of low backscatter and drop‐outs and the remarkably high incidence of thin cirrus in the southern tropical winter season. The compendium should provide a climatology of atmospheric backscatter at 10.6 μm for regions of the Atlantic during the relatively clean atmospheric period 1988–1990.