Regional physical and chemical properties of the marine boundary layer aerosol across the Atlantic during Aerosols99: An overview

The Aerosols99 cruise crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Norfolk, Virginia, to Cape Town, South Africa, between January 14 and February 8, 1999. The goal s of the cruise were to determine the chemical, physical, and optical prope rties of the marine boundary layer (MBL) aerosol, the vertical distribution of aerosols and ozone, the column-integrated aerosol optical depth, and th e ozone, CO, and peroxy radical chemistry in the MBL. Sampling strategies w ere optimized to obtain data sets to evaluate satellite-derived ocean color (Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor), aerosol optical depth (advanced v ery high resolution radiometer) and total column ozone (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer). The cruise track crossed through seven different meteorolog ical/oceanographic regimes ranging from background marine air masses in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres to air masses containing mineral dust an d the products of biomass burning. This overview discusses the seven regime s encountered enroute and the chemical and physical properties of the MBL a erosol in each regime.