A climatology of ocean temperature forcing by aerosols across the tropical Atlantic

Here I present a climatology of the impact African dust outbreaks have on ocean temperature through their radiative forcing. I will discuss a new methodology for integrating the more than 25-year AVHRR record of aerosol optical thickness into a simple radiative transfer model in order to quantify the seasonal and interannual variability of aerosol forcing over the so-called main development region. Our results suggest that surface aerosol forcing during the Atlantic hurricane season is non-negligible on both short and long-term time scales. In addition, our findings also imply that the overall decrease in Atlantic dust cover has contributed to the recent upturn in tropical Atlantic ocean temperatures. Using the strong correlation between Atlantic PDI and ocean temperatures, I will also present an estimation of what the variability in seasonal PDI, over the last 25-years, could have been like in a dust-free world.