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- Title
Sensitivities of Spectral Optical Properties of Dust Aerosols to Their Mineralogical and Microphysical Properties.
- Authors
Zhang, Yuheng; Saito, Masanori; Yang, Ping; Schuster, Gregory; Trepte, Charles
- Abstract
Dust aerosol is a key component in global radiative forcing and climate modeling. We developed a mineralogy‐resolved spectral optical property model for dust aerosols. The model incorporates nine mineral groups and applies the effective medium methods to obtain the spectral complex refractive indices of inhomogeneous dust particles. This study considers 5,000 sets of dust mineral composition mixtures along with the use of the bimodal particle size distribution. We calculate the bulk properties of these samples in a wide spectral range from 0.2 to 50 μm using a comprehensive database of hexahedral dust single‐scattering properties. Through sensitivity analyses, this study reveals that the illite and hematite components substantially affect the optical properties of dust. Furthermore, the effective radii of both the fine‐mode and the coarse‐mode dust particles have significant impacts on the bulk optical properties, albeit to varying degrees. Plain Language Summary: Dust aerosol plays a crucial role in influencing Earth's climate, and understanding their behavior is important for climate modeling. In this study, we developed a detailed model to study how different minerals in dust particles affect their interactions with light. We considered nine mineral groups and used robust methods to study how these minerals scatter and absorb light across a wide range of wavelengths. By combining the data of the mineral types found in dust and their particle sizes, we created thousands of dust mineral mixtures and investigate how they interact with light in different parts of the spectrum. Our findings show that certain minerals, such as illite and hematite, have a significant impact on how dust particles interact with light. Additionally, the size of both fine and coarse dust particles also plays an important role in determining the scattering and absorption of light by these particles. Key Points: Dust aerosol bulk optical properties are computed from the refractive index, mineralogical composition, and particle size distributionThe optical properties of dust aerosol show significant sensitivity to hematite and effective radius of the coarse dustThe new mineralogy‐based property model is applicable to nonspherical dust aerosol remote sensing studies
- Subjects
MINERAL dusts; SPECTRAL sensitivity; AEROSOLS; OPTICAL properties; DUST; OPTICAL remote sensing; LIGHT scattering; LIGHT absorption
- Publication
Journal of Geophysical Research. Atmospheres, 2024, Vol 129, Issue 10, p1
- ISSN
2169-897X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1029/2023JD040181