GACP Projects
Distribution and Properties of Carbonaceous aerosols: An Analysis of Existing Data
Tica Novakov
Abstract: The primary objective of this project is to compile, summarize, analyze, and estimate the uncertainties in past field measurements of total (TC), organic (OC) and black carbon (BC), as well as, the physical and chemical properties of this aerosol component. The values of reported concentrations may be influenced by method and sampling dependent artifacts which, if unaccounted for, may either over- or underestimate the actual concentrations. Consequently, evaluation of uncertainties is important because these may be large enough to render some of the reported concentrations unacceptable for achieving either mass or radiative closure. This activity will identify global regions where useful data exists and regions where there is a severe lack of data, and provide a needed level of quality assurance of the existing field data. The secondary objective is to examine the changes that occurred over the past 20 years in regional use of fuels whose combustion is the principal sources of anthropogenic carbonaceous aerosols. The purpose is to derive surrogates for changing aerosol concentration that can be used as indicators of geographic regions where aerosol forcing might be detectable from space-based observations.
