The NOAA Aerosols and Ocean Expedition

The NOAA Aerosols and Ocean Science Expeditions (AEROSE) are a series of trans-Atlantic intensive atmospheric field campaigns conducted aboard the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown (Morris et al. 2006). The AEROSE campaigns — to date comprised of six, four-week trans-Atlantic cruise legs held in 2004, 2006-2009) — also in collaboration with Howard University's NOAA Center for Atmospheric Sciences (HU/NCAS), have provided one of the most extensive collections of in situ measurements to characterize the impacts and microphysical evolution of the continental African Saharan air layer (SAL) and associated aerosol outflows, including both Saharan dust and sub-Saharan smoke from biomass burning, across the Atlantic Ocean (Nalli et al. 2005, 2006; Morris et al. 2006). Since 2006, these campaigns have become a synergistic partner with other NOAA missions onboard the Ronald H. Brown (namely, the PIRATA Northeast Extension project, PNE). Interdisciplinary areas of research include studying the transport, microphysical evolution and regional impacts of aerosols, the regional atmospheric chemistry and marine meteorology, and calibration/validation (cal / val) of advanced environmental satellite sensors. This presentation gives an overview of the AEROSE campaigns to date, with some focus given to the dedicated validation rawinsonde observations (RAOBs) used for satellite cal/val.