The Saharan Elevated Mixed Layer and its Aerosol Optical Depth
Toby N. Carlson*Meteorology, Emeritus Department of Meteorology Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802, Pennsylvania, USA
Abstract
Schematic Skew-T soundings can be used to estimate the depth of elevated mixed layers and their origins thousands of kilometers downstream from their source regions. Focus is on the elevated mixed layer from the Sahara, the Saharan Air Layer (SAL), and its relationship to aerosol optical depth. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements and SAL depth determined from atmospheric soundings were tabulated for five summers at three sites located downwind from the Sahara (Miami, Barbados and St. Cruz, Tenerife). These data are analyzed to show a site-specific relationship between the depth of the SAL and the AOD, the deeper the SAL the larger the AOD. The frequency distribution of SAL depths is also discussed.
Keywords: Aerosol transport, Aerosol optical depth (AOD), Ecological Monitoring, Elevated mixed layers, Saharan air layer depth (SAL).
Article Information
Article History:
Received Date: 25/05/2016
Revision Received Date: 13/07/2016
Acceptance Date: 19/07/2016
Electronic publication date: 23/09/2016
Collection year: 2016
© Toby N. Carlson; Licensee Bentham Open
open-access license:
This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0)
(
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the
work is properly cited.
*
Address correspondence to this author at the Emeritus Department of Meteorology Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802, Pennsylvania, USA; Tel: 814-863-1582; E-mail: tnc@psu.edu
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Manuscript submitted on 25-05-2016 |
Original Manuscript |
The Saharan Elevated Mixed Layer and its Aerosol Optical Depth |