Smoke is in the Air

 
Published: 27 June 2016

Editor’s note: Paquita Zuidema, a professor at the University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and principal investigator for the Layered Atlantic Smoke Interactions with Clouds campaign, sent this update.

We have the first evidence of smoke being present in the Ascension Island boundary layer from the LASIC [Layered Atlantic Smoke Interactions with Clouds] measurements from June 13 to 15. This indicates the surface-based measurements are picking up the signal of smoke present in the free troposphere and confirms the island is a good place for aerosol-cloud interaction studies.

It’s exciting to see, as I haven’t been completely sure how well the surface-based sensors would pick up the free-tropospheric signal.

Also exciting is this photo sent to me by Jim Haywood of the U.K. Met Office. He took it from the regular air flight into Ascension Island on June 13. The orange color suggests the presence of the smoke, which the data from LASIC confirm.

As a scientist, I could not be happier to see orange!

Flight into
Photo taken during the June 13 flight over Ascension Island, courtesy of Jim Haywood, U.K. Met Office.
First evidence of absorbing-aerosol within the Ascension Island cloudy boundary layer during LASIC. There is a clear increase in AMF1 surface-detected CO, PSAP absorption coefficient and SP2 counts (sensitive to black carbon mass).
First evidence of absorbing-aerosol within the Ascension Island cloudy boundary layer during LASIC is shown here. There is a clear increase in the first ARM Mobile Facility’s surface-detected CO from the Carbon Monoxide Mixing Ratio System, Particle Soot Absorption Photometer absorption coefficient, and Single Particle Soot Photometer counts (i.e., sensitive to black carbon mass).