Aerosol Chemistry, Optics and Micro-Physics over the Tropical North Atlantic and Caribbean

该项目的总体目标是通过研究北大西洋和加勒比海热带和亚热带地区主要气溶胶种类的化学、物理和光学特性来更好地了解气溶胶颗粒如何影响气候和气候变化，从而了解导致这些特性发生重大时空变化的过程。气溶胶特性的连续测量将在三个地面站进行：伊扎纳岛、特内里费岛、加那利群岛；巴巴多斯的粗糙点；以及佛罗里达州的迈阿密。这些测量结果将成为一个长期数据库的一部分，该数据库始于1965年，当时在巴巴多斯的拉破点建立了一个大气采样点，并通过大气/海洋化学实验（AEROCE）继续进行。热带北大西洋和加勒比海特别重要和有趣，因为热带海洋被认为对天气和气候有重大影响，因为这些海洋区域位于大气之下，比其他任何地方都更容易受到空气中颗粒（尤其是矿物粉尘）的影响。在夏季的几个月里，来自北非和南欧的污染物与矿物粉尘一起运输。在冬季，来自非洲较南部地区的矿物粉尘的不太频繁的间歇性运输通常伴随着生物质燃烧产物通过大气。

The overall objective of this program is to gain a better understanding of how aerosol particles impact climate and climate change by examining the chemical, physical, and optical properties of the major aerosol species over the tropical and subtropical North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean to understand the processes that cause any significant temporal or spatial variations in those properties. Continuous measurements of aerosol properties will be made at three ground stations: Izana, Tenerife, Canary Islands; Ragged Point, Barbados; and Miami, Florida. These measurements will become part of a long-term database that began in 1965 with the establishment of an atmospheric sampling site at Ragged Point, Barbados and continued through the Atmosphere/Ocean Chemistry Experiment (AEROCE).The tropical North Atlantic and Caribbean are particularly important and interesting because tropical oceans are thought to have a significant impact on weather and climate, and because these ocean regions underlay an atmosphere more impacted by airborne particles, especially mineral dust, than any other. During summer months, pollutants from North Africa and southern Europe are transported with mineral dust. During the winter, less frequent episodic transport of mineral dust from more southern regions in Africa are carried through the atmosphere often with biomass burning products.