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Observational Bounds On Atmospheric Heating By Aerosol Absorption: Radiative Signature Of Transatlantic Dust, Amit Davidi, Alexander Kostinski, Ilan Koren, Yoav Lehahn

Department of Physics Publications

[1] Aerosols absorb solar radiation thus changing the atmospheric temperature profile but the overall magnitude of this effect is not known. To that end, Saharan dust emissions over the Atlantic Ocean provide an opportunity to examine aerosol‐related heating via satellite imaging. A major difficulty, however, is disentangling a straightforward heating signal caused by the absorbing dust from a meteorological signal, which originates from correlation between dust concentration and air temperature. To tackle the problem, we combine temperature (T) soundings, from the atmospheric infrared sounder (AIRS), with aerosol optical depth (τ) measurements, from the moderate resolution imaging …