Climatology of Aerosols over the Caribbean Islands: Aerosol Types, Synoptic Patterns, and Transport

Autor: Albeht Rodríguez Vega, Juan Carlos Antuña-Marrero, David Barriopedro, Ricardo García-Herrera, Victoria E. Cachorro Revilla, Ángel de Frutos Baraja, Juan Carlos Antuña-Sánchez
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname
ISSN: 1558-8432
1558-8424
DOI: 10.1175/jamc-d-21-0015.1
Popis: We present a climatological study of aerosols in four representative Caribbean Sea islands that is based on daily mean values of aerosol optical properties for the period 2008¿16, using the aerosol optical depth (AOD) and Ångström exponent (AE) to classify the dominant aerosol type. A climatological assessment of the spatiotemporal distribution of the main aerosol types, their links with synoptic patterns, and the transport from different sources is provided. Maximum values of AOD occur in the rainy season, coinciding with the minimum in AE and an increased occurrence of dust, whereas the minimum of AOD occurs in the dry season, due to the predominance of marine aerosols. Marine and dust aerosol are more frequent in the easternmost islands and decrease westward because of an increase of continental and mixture dust aerosols. Therefore, the westernmost station displays the most heterogeneous composition of aerosols. Using a weather-type classification, we identify a quantifiable influence of the atmospheric circulation in the distribution of Caribbean aerosols. However, they can occur under relatively weak and/or diverse synoptic patterns, typically involving transient systems and specific configurations of the Azores high that depend on the considered station. Backward trajectories indicate that dry-season marine aerosols and rainy season dust are transported by air parcels traveling within the tropical easterly winds. The main source region for both types of aerosols is the subtropical eastern Atlantic Ocean, except for Cuba, where the largest contributor to dry-season marine aerosols is the subtropical western Atlantic. Different aerosol types follow similar pathways, suggesting a key role of emission sources in determining the spatiotemporal distribution of Caribbean aerosols.
This research was supported by the CSIC (“Consejo Superior de 785 Investigaciones Científicas” of Spain) under project COPA20207. We thank Jack 786 Molinie, Joseph M. Prospero and Brent N. Holben for his effort in establishing and 787 maintaining the Guadeloupe, Ragged Point and La Parguera AERONET sites. The sun 788 photometer at Camagüey was provided by the Grupo de Óptica Atmosférica of the 789 University of Valladolid (UVA), Spain under a cooperation agreement with INSMET, 790 Cuba. The agreement signed in 2007, still in place until the present, has been successful 791 despite limitations and obstacles (Antuña-Marrero et al., 2016; GOAC, 2020). Special 34 792 recognition to Prof. Ángel de Frutos and Victoria Cachorro from UVA for supporting 793 the joint research on atmospheric aerosols. Also, INSMET is recognized by its support 794 until the present. Also, we would like to acknowledge NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis team 795 for making the data publicly available. Version 3.0 of AERONET data were freely 796 downloaded from the AERONET web site (https://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov, last access: 8 797 June 2020). NCEP-NCAR Reanalysis data were downloaded from 798 (https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.ncep.reanalysis2.html, last access: 25 799 Mayo 2018). We thank the Editor and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable 800 comments and suggestions.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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