Transcontinental Aerosol Measurements from Adelaide to Darwin

Abstract

Aircraft measurements of atmospheric aerosol were made during a number of transcontinental flights across Australia from Adelaide to Darwin during June and September 2003. A range of aerosol measuring equipment was operated during these flights enabling data to be collected on the aerosol chemistry, physical size distribution and scattering coefficient. Additional information has been obtained from other sources on the continental weather patterns and global atmospheric aerosol loading for the period that covers these flights. Together this information presents a picture of the aerosol sources, microchemistry, microphysics and optical properties allowing for differences to be explored between Southern and Northern regions of Australia at different altitudes (spatial information) and between the months of June and September (temporal information). The conclusions are that the aerosol mass density is small in general particularly during the month of June. At lower altitudes smoke tends to be the dominant accumulation mode aerosol and sea salt a major constituent of the coarse mode. There is evidence of some influence of intercontinental aerosol during September but the level of importance is difficult to quantify.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 2004
Accession Number
ADA429643

Entities

People

  • S. B. Carr

Organizations

  • Defence Science and Technology Group

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Air Platforms
  • Sensors
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Masses
  • Aircrafts
  • Altitude
  • Chemical Compounds
  • Chemistry
  • Combustion
  • Continents
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Electromagnetic Radiation
  • Ground Based
  • Information Science
  • Measurement
  • Meteorology
  • Optical Detectors
  • Optical Properties
  • Scattering

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Aerosol Science/Aerosol Physics
  • Atmospheric Science/Meteorology
  • Urban Planning and Geography.