An Observational Study of Aerosols and Tropical Cyclones over the Eastern Atlantic Ocean Basin for Recent Hurricane Seasons

The aerosol vertical distribution in the tropical cyclone (TC) main development region (MDR) during recent active hurricane seasons (2015–2018) was investigated using observations from NASA’s Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) Satellite. Total Attenuated Backscatter (TAB) at 532 nm measured by with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP Lidar) onboard CALIPSO which is a polar orbiting satellite that evaluates role clouds atmospheric aerosols play Earth’s weather, climate air quality. TAB used to illustrate dispersion magnitude of TC-genesis region. A combination extinction quality flag, cloud fraction, cloud-aerosol discrimination (CAD) scores were filter out impact clouds. To better describe qualitative quantitative difference along paths African Easterly Waves (AEWs), MDR further divided into two domains 18° W 30° (Domain 1) 45° 2), respectively. average concentration time cyclogenesis compared quantified between each case. resulting suggest there are distinct layers profile, near surface layer 0.5–1.75 km an upper 1.75–5 altitude. quantification total values indicate domain 2 cases associated higher concentrations than 1 cases. environmental variables such as sea temperature (SST), windshear (VWS), relative humidity (RH) tended be favorable for genesis occur. Among all this study, results suggested occurred under dust-loaded conditions while favorable, indicating dust may not significant inhibiting process TCs.