Constraining global aerosol emissions using POLDER/PARASOL satellite remote sensing observations.

We invert global black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC) and desert dust (DD) aerosol emissions from POLDER/PARASOL spectral aerosol optical depth (AOD) and aerosol absorption optical depth (AAOD) using the GEOS-Chem inverse modelling framework. Our inverse modeling framework uses standard a priori emissions to provide a posteriori emissions that are constrained by POLDER/PARASOL AODs and AAODs. The following global emission values were retrieved for the three aerosol components: 18.4 Tg/yr for BC, 109.9 Tg/yr for OC, and 731.6 Tg/yr for DD for the year 2010. These values show a difference of +166.7 %, +184.0 %, and -42.4 % with respect to the a priori values of emission inventories used in "standard" GEOS-Chem runs. The model simulations using a posteriori emissions (i.e. retrieved emissions) provide values of 0.119 for global mean AOD and 0.0071 for AAOD at 550 nm, which are +13.3 % and +82.1 % higher than the AOD and AAOD obtained using the a priori values of emissions. Additionally, the a posteriori model simulation of AOD, AAOD, single scattering albedo, Ångström exponent, and absorption Ångström exponent show better agreement with independent AERONET, MODIS, and OMI measurements than the a priori simulation. Thus, this study suggests that using satellite-constrained global aerosol emissions in aerosol transport models can improve the accuracy of simulated global aerosol properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]