Single scattering albedo (omega), the ratio of scattering coefficient to total extinction coefficient, at UV wavelengths is an important aerosol radiative parameter in determining surface UV irradiance. Surface measurements of total and diffuse UV irradiance in the summer and fall of 1999 at the seven narrowband wavelength channels of an UV multifilter rotating shadowband radiometer (UVMFR-SR) at Black Mountain, NC were coupled with a tropospheric ultraviolet radiative transfer model to produce values of omega. Its value ranged from 0.53 ? 0.94 at 300 nm to 0.55 ? 1.00 at 368 nm. Error in this procedure decreases with increasing aerosol optical depth (AOD), from +/-0.19 at AOD = 0.05 to +/-0.02 at AOD=1.0. Values of omega were not found to be correlated with air mass origin. The current values of omega have a wider variation than values reported from a previous study at the same site, possibly attributable to changes in aerosol chemical composition over time. The value of omega was found to be quadratically correlated with wavelength. Little research has been conducted in the scattering and absorption properties of aerosols in the UV wavelengths, but what has been done suggests such a correlation is possible. More values of omega in the UV spectrum will allow for better estimation of this parameter for UV radiative transfer modeling and will lessen error in estimation of surface UV irradiances.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-05212002-142505 |
| Date | 02 July 2002 |
| Creators | Petters, Jonathan Leonard |
| Contributors | Vinod K. Saxena, Sethu Raman, John J. Deluisi |
| Publisher | NCSU |
| Source Sets | North Carolina State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-05212002-142505/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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