Clear-sky closure studies of lower tropospheric aerosol and water vapor during ACE-2 using airborne sunphotometer, airborne in-situ, space-borne, andground-based measurements

We report on clear-sky column closure experiments (CLEARCOLUMN) performed i n the Canary Islands during the second Aerosol Characterization Experiment (ACE-2) in June/July 1997. We present CLEARCOLUMN results obtained by combi ning airborne sunphotometer and in-situ (optical particle counter, nephelom eter, and absorption photometer) measurements taken aboard the Pelican airc raft, space-borne NOAA/AVHRR data and ground-based lidar and sunphotometer measurements. During both days discussed here, vertical profiles flown in c loud-free air masses revealed 3 distinctly different layers: a marine bound ary layer (MBL) with varying pollution levels, an elevated dust layer, and a very clean layer between the MBL and the dust layer. A key result of this study is the achievement of closure between extinction or layer aerosol op tical depth (AOD) computed from continuous in-situ aerosol size-distributio ns and composition and those measured with the airborne sunphotometer. In t he dust, the agreement in layer AOD (lambda = 380 1060 nm) is 3-8%. In the MBL there is a tendency for the in-situ results to be slightly lower than t he sunphotometer measurements (10 17% at lambda = 525 nm), but those differ ences are within the combined error bars of the measurements and computatio ns.