Vol. 10, issue 12, article # 8

Abstract:

Spatiotemporal variability of spectral aerosol optical thicknesses and water vapor column densities in the atmosphere over the Atlantic Ocean was studied during the 39th voyage of the research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh. The relative day-to-day variability of aerosol thicknesses is shown to be about 40% and the diurnal variation has the noon maximum with the 15–30% amplitude relative to the morning and evening data. In spatial variability, the approach to continents is accompanied by the transformation of the spectral behavior of aerosol optical thicknesses: its selectivity increases due to the increase of small-size fraction content of the continental aerosol. As a consequence, its spectral dependence changes, namely, in the visible the differences between near-continental and central oceanic regions are manifested and in the 1–4-mm range the spectral behavior is close to neutral and changes less significantly.