References

ACP

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

ACP

1680-7324

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acp-11-11455-2011

Aerosol optical properties and radiative effect determined from sky-radiometer over Loess Plateau of Northwest China

Liu

¹ Huang

¹ Shi

² Takamura

³ Khatri

³ Bi

¹ Shi

¹ Wang

¹ Zhang

Key Laboratory for Semi-Arid Climate Change of the Ministry of Education and College of Atmospheric Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

LASG, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China

Center for Environmental Remote Sensing, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan

17 11 2011

11 22 11455 11463

This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/11/11455/2011/acp-11-11455-2011.pdf

The aerosol optical properties and their associated radiative effects are derived from sky-radiometer and surface solar radiation data collected over the Semi-Arid Climate and Environment Observatory of Lanzhou University (SACOL) for the period of March to May (MAM) 2009. The result shows that the seasonal mean aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 500 nm in MAM is 0.40. The single scattering albedo (SSA) at 500 nm in MAM at SACOL fluctuates significantly ranging from 0.82 to 0.98. The averaged value of SSA there for background aerosol is 0.90 in MAM, while it is smaller (0.87) during the dust event outbreak period. The smaller SSA can be interpreted as the result of larger particles during dust events. The averaged asymmetry factor (ASY) at 500 nm during dust event period is 0.73, which is larger than 0.70 of background aerosols. The averaged shortwave radiative effects of the aerosols during dust event period in MAM are 0.68, −70.02 and 70.70 W m−2, respectively, at the top of the atmosphere (TOA), surface and in the atmosphere. The aerosols heat the atmosphere during dust event period by up to about 2 K day−1 (daily averaged), which is 60 % larger than the heating (1.25 K day−1) of background aerosols. The significant heating effect in the atmosphere of the aerosols during dust event is determined by larger AOD and smaller SSA.

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