An Aerosol Model of the Marine and Coastal Atmospheric Surface Layer

Abstract

We present a microphysical model for the surface layer marine and coastal atmospheric aerosols that is based on long-term observations of size distributions for 0.01–100 µm particles. The fundamental feature of the model is a parameterization of amplitudes and widths for aerosol modes of the aerosol size distribution function (ASDF) as functions of fetch and wind speed. The shape of ASDF and its dependence on meteorological parameters, height above sea level (H), fetch (X), wind speed (U) and relative humidity (RH), are investigated. At present, the model covers the ranges H = 0–25 m, U = 3–18 km s−1, X ≤ 120 km and RH = 40–98%. The latest version of the Marine Aerosol Extinction Profiles model (MaexPro) is described and applied to the computation and analysis of the spectral profiles of aerosol extinction coefficients α(λ) in the wavelength band λ = 0.2–12 µm. MaexPro is based on the aforementioned aerosol model assuming spherically shaped aerosol particles and the well-known Mie theory. The spectral profiles of α(λ) calculated by MaexPro are in good agreement with observational data and the numerical results obtained from the Navy Aerosol Model (NAM) and the Advanced Navy Aerosol Model (ANAM). Moreover, MaexPro was found to be an accurate and reliable tool for investigating the optical properties of atmospheric aerosols.