Aerosol climatology over South Africa based on 10 years of multiangle imaging spectroradiometer (MISR) data

dc.contributor.authorTesfaye, M.
dc.contributor.authorSivakumar, Venkataraman
dc.contributor.authorBotai, Joel Ongego
dc.contributor.authorTsidu, G. Mengistu
dc.date.accessioned2017-09-28T10:20:36Z
dc.date.available2017-09-28T10:20:36Z
dc.date.issued2011
dc.description.abstractIn this paper, we present a detailed study of the spatial and seasonal aerosol climatology over South Africa (SA), based on Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) data. We have used 10 years (2000–2009) of MISR monthly mean aerosol extinction (text), absorption (ta) optical depths at 558 nm, Angstrom exponents in visible (VIS; 446–672 nm) and near‐infrared (NIR; 672–866 nm) spectral bands, and the extracted spectral curvature. The study has shown that, in terms of aerosol load level spatial variation, SA can be classified into three parts: the upper, central, and lower, which illustrate high, medium, and low aerosol loadings, respectively. The results for the three parts of SA are presented in detail. The prevailing sources of aerosols are different in each part of SA. The lower part is dominated by the air mass transport from the surrounding marine environment and other SA or neighboring regions, while the central and upper parts are loaded through windablated mineral dust and local anthropogenic activities. During the biomass burning seasons (July–September), the central part of SA is more affected than the rest of SA by the biomassburning aerosols (based on ta, ∼20% higher than the rest of SA). In alignment with the observed higher values of text, aerosol size distributions were found to be highly variable in the upper part of SA, which is due to the high population and the industrial/mining/ agricultural activities in this area.en_ZA
dc.description.departmentGeography, Geoinformatics and Meteorologyen_ZA
dc.description.librarianam2017en_ZA
dc.description.sponsorshipThe author M. Tesfaye is financially supported by the African Laser Centre, South Africa.en_ZA
dc.description.urihttp://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/jgr/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)2156-2202/en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationTesfaye, M., V. Sivakumar, J. Botai, and G. Mengistu Tsidu (2011), Aerosol climatology over South Africa based on 10 years of Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) data, J. Geophys. Res., 116, D20216, DOI: 10.1029/2011JD016023.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn0148-0227 (print)
dc.identifier.issn2156-2202 (online)
dc.identifier.other10.1029/2011JD016023
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/62529
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherAmerican Geophysical Unionen_ZA
dc.rights© 2011 American Geophysical Unionen_ZA
dc.subjectNatural sourcesen_ZA
dc.subjectSouth Africa (SA)en_ZA
dc.subjectMultiangle imaging spectroradiometer (MISR)en_ZA
dc.subjectAerosol climatologyen_ZA
dc.subjectAerosolsen_ZA
dc.titleAerosol climatology over South Africa based on 10 years of multiangle imaging spectroradiometer (MISR) dataen_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA

Files

Original bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Tesfaye_Aerosol_2011.pdf
Size:
3.84 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Article

License bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.75 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description: