Aerosol properties from MIRAI research cruise in the tropical pacific ocean Original Research Article

Aerosol parameters are observed with a photopolarimeter (PSR-1000 device) and by SeaWiFS sensor during two research cruises conducted by R/V MIRAI in the equatorial Pacific regions. Observation of aerosol particles has shown the background characteristics of aerosol particles. The aerosol optical thickness calculated from PSR-1000 data coincide well with those from SeaWiFS data at 0.865 μm and shows difference at 0.443 μm. It is also shown that the data with low aerosol optical thickness has an ambiguity in the calculation of the Angstrom exponent for various sets of wavelengths. The refractive index of aerosol particles is retrieved by combining data from direct solar measurements and those from polarization measurements of scattered sun-light.