OPTICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF AEROSOLS AND CLOUDS STUDIED BY USING GROUND-BASED SKYNET AND SATELLITE REMOTE SENSING DATA

Firstly, this study discusses long-term observations of aerosol chararacteristics over four typical SKYNET sites (Chiba, Fukuejima, Miyakojima, and Hedo) within Japan to clarify the seasonal dependent characteristics of aerosols of different origins and their impacts on atmospheric heat budget. Optically thicker aerosols with significant amount of coarse-mode aerosols are found in the spring season. The aerosol radiative forcings at the surface and top of the atmosphere in the spring season can be roughly two times of the values in the winter season. Secondly, we discuss the optical characteristics of clouds obtained from the sky radiometer of SKYNET and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Our analysis suggests that MODIS cloud optical depth (COD) may be underestimated, which in turn may lead to overestimate calculated shortwave flux.