Aircraft observations and modeling of sky radiance distributions from aerosol during TARFOX

Abstract

We present data from three cases studied during TARFOX, the Tropospheric Aerosol Radiative Forcing Observational Experiment. Aircraft measurements of the aerosol chemical composition, size distribution, and hygroscopic growth are used to construct a detailed picture of the aerosol microphysical characteristics. The distribution of the sky radiance field is then calculated at several wavelengths in the visible and near‐infrared region of the spectrum from these data. The simulations are compared with observed radiance distributions made from one of the aircraft. Reasonable agreement is obtained for two of the cases considered, but significant differences exist for the third, which we are unable to explain at the present time.