Optical properties and direct radiative effect of Saharan dust: A case study of two Saharan dust outbreaks using aircraft data

The radiative effects of Saharan dust are measured during two flights by the Met Office C‐130 aircraft off the west coast of Africa. Data from the broadband radiometers suggests that the perturbation to the top of the atmosphere net solar irradiance is as strong as −60 W m−2 ±5 W m−2 during the dust events. In situ measurements with the nephelometer and particle soot absorption photometer suggest that the single scattering albedo is approximately 0.87 at a wavelength of 0.55 μm. This is in agreement with the optical parameters calculated from independent measurements of the particle size distributions combined with suitable refractive indices and Mie‐scattering theory. The wavelength dependence of the extinction coefficient derived from measurements of the scattering coefficient by the nephelometer is also in excellent agreement with the calculations. Independent surface‐based measurements from Cape Verde suggest that the wavelength dependence of the aerosol optical depth appears reasonable. Calculations of the downward solar irradiances within the aerosol layer are generally in good agreement with the measurements demonstrating consistency between the measurements and the modeling efforts. The terrestrial radiative effect is not detectable by the current instrumentation, though it cannot be considered negligible. These measurements suggest that satellite retrieval algorithms may misclassify the aerosol outbreak as cloud because the aerosol optical depth at 0.55 μm is as high as 1.15, which is in excess of the thresholds used in some cloud detection algorithms. The measurements demonstrate that this method could be used to provide an accurate benchmark for satellite‐based estimates of the radiative effect of aerosols.