Relatório Técnico

Abstract

The implications of aerosols and clouds in the climate is one of the most important research fields in atmospheric sciences (IPCC, 2023; https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157896). This is mainly due to the fact that there are still large uncertainties in the radiative forcing (RF) of both aerosols and clouds, especially the indirect RF associated with the dynamics of aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI). In fact, the current ESA/JAXA EarthCARE mission (from May 2024; https://earth.esa.int/eogateway/missions/earthcare) primarily aims at studying aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions in order to determine their effect on the energy balance of the Earth-atmosphere system, and therefore their impact on the climate and future climate projections. In this sense, advanced instrumentation is needed to conduct a more comprehensive monitoring of aerosols and clouds. In this regard, remote sensing techniques, as active (e.g. lidar systems, as typical atmospheric profilers) as passive (e.g. sun-sky-lunar photometers), represent fundamental tools to be applied in these studies. In relation to ACI, it is worth highlighting the role that the atmospheric aerosols (e.g. dust, biomass-burning, sea spray, anthropogenic pollution) play by serving as condensation nuclei (CCN) or ice nuclei (INP) in cloud formation via aerosol-induced nucleation. However, their contribution can be differently revealed. In particular, mineral dust is one of the most active aerosols efficiently acting as INP (https://doi.org/10.1029/2003GL017410), as well as CCN (https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JD016283). On the other hand, despite being less understood, marine aerosols exhibit a significant potential to serve as CCN (https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JD006186) and/or INP (https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1514034112). In this framework, the main objective of this proposal is to investigate the marine aerosols in relation with their CCN/INP predictions (novel study) in comparison to mineral dust (more widely studied).