Catch Those Rays!
Krystal Waltman wrote earlier in a blog about the AERONET Project we are working on with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. We take six handheld sunphotometer readings twice a day onboard Nautilus for use in studies about aerosols in ocean environments. While collecting this data, I wondered how it would be used in the future.
To begin with, what are aerosols and why are they important? Aerosols are tiny solid or liquid particulate matter suspended in the atmosphere. Measurements taken through the AERONET project tell us how much sunlight is prevented from traveling through a column of atmosphere due to aerosols.
Sea salt is one of the largest sources of aerosols on Earth. When whitecaps form on windy days, millions of tiny bubbles burst, throwing salt particles into the air. Scientists believe these aerosols affect the Earth’s radiation balance, cloud formation and climate.
The more sea spray there is in the air, the more reflective our atmosphere is to the rays of sunlight streaming toward us all the time. The earth's reflectivity is called its "albedo", and is measured on a scale of 0 to 1, where 0 is given to a substance that absorbs all light and 1 is a perfectly reflective surface. The more reflective the earth's atmosphere is (i.e. the higher its albedo), the less heat gets trapped inside the system, and the less energy there is to have to dissipate into space, since it has already bounced off before it came in. The question is: how much does sea spray contribute to raising the earth’s albedo? Because measurements over land may be different from those over the oceans, ship-based measurements can better help us understand global aerosol distribution.
While clouds are the single biggest contributor to reflectivity levels of the earth, aerosols are the second largest. Knowing more about the effects of sea spray and other aerosols on the albedo of the oceans is necessary for us to be able to make informed decisions about what course of action might be best to take in the future to ensure an environment that sustains many of the species we care so much about (including our own).
Research done at NASA by the Maritime Aerosol Network (MAN), which is a component of the AERONET project, may help stimulate more, similar research and sow the seeds of international collaboration in many scientific areas. Because this project not only focuses on science that affects the world's oceans, but also involves bringing groups from all over the world together, it seems only fitting that Nautilus would be a partner in collecting this important data.
Sounds like some really cool
Sounds like some really cool stuff you are doing out there...and a great way to enjoy the sun while you are catching those rays!
As a coordinator of the
As a coordinator of the Maritime Aerosol Network (MAN) which is a component of AERONET, I would like to thank Dr. Robert Ballard and Dr. Chris Roman (University of Rhode Island) for making this happen. Many thanks to Sharon and other Educators-at-Sea for data collection. I would like to extend our thanks to the crew of the EV Nautilus. The data and cruise track can be accessed at http://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/new_web/cruises_new/Nautilus_11.html and at http://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/new_web/KML/Nautilus_11_daily_lev15.kml
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