AEROCLO

The AEROCLO-sA project (AErosol, RadiatiOn and CLOuds in southern Africa) investigates the role of aerosols on the regional climate of southern Africa, a unique environment where natural and anthropogenic aerosols and a semi-permanent and widespread stratocumulus cloud deck (ScD) are found. The project aims at understanding the dynamical, chemical and radiative processes involved in the aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions over land and ocean and under various meteorological conditions.

The AEROCLO-sA field campaign was conducted in August/September 2017 over Namibia. An aircraft equipped with active and passive remote sensors and aerosol in situ probes performed a total of 30 research flight hours. In parallel, a ground-based instrumented mobile station with state-of-the-art in situ and remote sensing aerosol probes was implemented over coastal Namibia, and complemented by ground-based and balloon-borne observations of the dynamical, thermodynamical and physical properties of the lower troposphere. The focus laid on mineral dust emitted from salty pans and ephemeral riverbeds in northern Namibia, biomass burning aerosol plumes advected from Angola and transported over the Atlantic Ocean, and aerosols in the marine boundary layer, at the ocean-atmosphere interface.