Department of Physics and Astronomy

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Everette Joseph

Howard University

Wednesday January 16, 4 pm

Thirkield Hall (Physics), room 103

Applying Surface-Based Remote Sensing to Study the Impact of Aerosols on Climate

Aerosol direct and indirect effects are the greates source of uncertainty in current predictions of anthropogenic climate change. The uncertainty of the aerosols effects is greatest among all recognized climate forcing mechanisms. With limited laboratory and field observations of these effects, many questions remain unresolved, and are the subject of vigorous on-going research. Researches at Howard University in collaboration with scientists at NASA, NOAA and several other institutions have developed a research program based on field experimentation to study the properties of natural and anthropogenic aerosols and to improve understanding of teir impact on clourd properties, precipitation, etc., For this research techniques based on surface based passive remote sensing have been developed integrated with modeling and observations from satellite remote sensing. This presentation will report on two of these efforts: results from recent expeditions across the tropical North Atlantic on the research vessel NOAA Ship Ronald Brown to study the characteristics of Saharan dust, and a newly developed field site at the Howard University Beltsville Campus in suburban Washington, DC with integrated observations to study a number of atmospheric processes including effects of anthropogenic aerosols on the optical properites of warm clouds.

Student participation and training in these projects will also be discussed, as well as opportunities for future experiments.

Refreshments will be served at 3:40pm