Climatological Thermodynamic and Aerosol Variability over the Maritime Continent

Variable vertical layers in temperature, relative humidity, and wind components over the Maritime Continent were identified for comparison with aerosols produced by biomass burning for the years 2008-2015. A thermodynamic profile of the MC was produced using radiosonde observations from several release sites. The thermodynamics were also represented in a lower dimension subspace via Principal Component Analysis to discern meteorological signals. AERONET observations of fine mode smoke aerosol optical thickness (AOT) were then compared with the identified layers of thermodynamic variability. Due to its effect on convection and precipitation, the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) was also considered. Because 2015 experienced an extreme biomass burning event, this year was examined for distinguishing anomalous meteorological behavior. With this juxtaposition of typical vertical thermodynamic structures and AOT, it possible to construct a statistical overview of the correlation and covariance between meteorology and biomass burning over the MC.