Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 5
Universal Spectrum for Atmospheric Suspended
Particulates: Comparison with Observations:
Data Set III
Abstract
Atmospheric flows exhibit fractal fluctuations and inverse power law for
power spectra indicates an eddy continuum structure for the self-similar fluctua-
tions. A general systems theory for aerosol size distribution based on fractal fluctua-
tions is proposed. The model predicts universal (scale-free) inverse power law for
fractal fluctuations expressed in terms of the golden mean. Atmospheric particulates
are held in suspension in the fractal fluctuations of vertical wind velocity. The mass
or radius (size) distribution for homogeneous suspended atmospheric particulates is
expressed as a universal scale-independent function of the golden mean, the total
number concentration, and the mean volume radius. Model-predicted spectrum is
compared with the total averaged radius size spectra for the AERONET (aerosol
inversions) stations Davos and Mauna Loa for 2010 and Izana for 2009. There is
close agreement between the model predicted and the observed aerosol spectra. The
proposed model for universal aerosol size spectrum will have applications in com-
putations of the radiation balance of earth-atmosphere system in climate models.
Keywords
Universal spectrum for aerosol size distribution ∙ General systems
theory for atmospheric aerosol size spectrum ∙ AERONET (aerosol inversions)
stations Davos, Mauna Loa, and Izana ∙ Nonlinear dynamics and chaos, radiation
balance of earthatmosphere system in climate models
5.1
Introduction
Atmospheric aerosol mass size spectrum is expressed in terms of the universal eddy
energy spectrumand is a function of the mean volume radius and total number con-
centration. Model predictions are in agreement with observed daily mean Aeronet
aerosol size spectrum at Davos and Mauna Loa for 2010 and at Izana for 2009
(Selvam
2013
).
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