Seasonal Variability of Aerosol Single Scattering Albedo at Biomass Burning Sites in Southern Africa and Amazonia

Abstract

Monitoring of the optical properties of primarily biomass burning aerosols in Mongu, Zambia was initiated in 1995, when an AERONET sun/sky radiometer site was established at the Mongu airport. For the biomass burning season months (July-November), we present monthly means of aerosol single scattering albedo (SSA), aerosol size distributions, and refractive indices from almucantar sky scan retrievals utilizing the algorithm of Dubovik and King (2000). The monthly mean single scattering albedo at 440 nm in Mongu was found to increase significantly from July (0.845) to October (0.93). The slope of the spectral dependence of aerosol single scattering albedo with wavelength decreased as SSA increased from July to October. However, there was no significant change in particle size in either the dominant accumulation or secondary coarse modes during these months. Similarly, seasonal SSA retrievals for Etosha Pan, Namibia also show increasing values through the burning season in 2000. We also analyze the seasonality of SSA for sites in biomass burning regions of Amazonia. We show maps of satellite detected fire counts which indicate that the regions of primary biomass burning shift significantly from July to October. Possible reasons for the seasonal changes in observed SSA include differences in aging to due transport speed and distance from source regions, differences in biomass fuel types in different regions (fraction of woody biomass versus grasses), and differences in fuel moisture content (October is the beginning of the rainy season on both continents).