Evaluation of aerosol measurements from SAGE II, HALOE, and balloonborne optical particle counters

Abstract

Stratospheric aerosol measurements from the University of Wyoming balloonborne optical particle counters (OPCs), the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) II, and the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) were compared in the period 1982–2000, when measurements were available. The OPCs measure aerosol size distributions, and HALOE multiwavelength (2.45–5.26 μm) extinction measurements can be used to retrieve aerosol size distributions. Aerosol extinctions at the SAGE II wavelengths (0.386–1.02 μm) were computed from these size distributions and compared to SAGE II measurements. In addition, surface areas derived from all three experiments were compared. While the overall impression from these results is encouraging, the agreement can change with latitude, altitude, time, and parameter. In the broadest sense, these comparisons fall into two categories: high aerosol loading (volcanic periods) and low aerosol loading (background periods and altitudes above 25 km). When the aerosol amount was low, SAGE II and HALOE extinctions were higher than the OPC estimates, while the SAGE II surface areas were lower than HALOE and the OPCs. Under high loading conditions all three instruments mutually agree to within 50%.