Global warming theories continue to overestimate their predictions of increased mean global temperatures (Hudson 1991). This would imply that some other influence is counteracting the global warming influences; i.e. a cooling effect. Cloud albedo characteristics are currently being researched to determine the impact clouds have on the net cooling of the atmosphere in relation to the global warming theory. These characteristics are influenced by the type, size, composition, and abundance of aerosol particles that act as cloud condensation nuclei. This study employs Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer (TDMA) data collected in the vicinity of Japan during the Asian Aerosol Characterization Experiment (ACE-Asia) to investigate the influence of aerosol concentration and composition on the light scattering properties of clouds. Measurements of particle size (Dp), particle growth factor (GF), and relative humidity (RH) yield critical supersaturations (Sc) with the assumption that the soluble part of the particle is composed primarily of one substance. This indirect composition analysis allows us to determine whether the aerosol was internally mixed (particles have uniform composition and yield a single-peak distribution or similar growth factors) or externally mixed (different particles have different compositions yielding multiple peaks in the distribution). Through the use of calculated supersaturations, we can gain insight into cloud droplet activation properties of the samples for various aerosol types, which ultimately allows us to look at the influence of these particles on albedo characteristics of clouds formed by these particles.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TEXASAandM/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/3980 |
| Date | 16 August 2006 |
| Creators | Thomas, Timothy William |
| Contributors | Collins, Donald R., Marlow, William H., Zhang, Renyi |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 813498 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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