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Comparison of Aerosol Optical Properties Between Two Nearby Urban Sites in Beijing, China

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Abstract

This study compares the aerosol optical properties measured by CE318 sunphotometers at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences in Beijing between January 2013 and July 2015 to provide the framework to quantify the spatial and temporal variability of aerosol properties. Aerosol optical parameters included extinction (scattering plus absorption) aerosol optical depth (EAOD), extinction Ångström exponent (EAE), columnar water vapor (CWV), absorption aerosol optical depth (AAOD), absorption Ångström exponent (AAE), extinction aerosol optical depth of fine particles (EAODf), extinction aerosol optical depth of coarse particles (EAODc), real parts of the refractive index (REFR), imaginary parts of the refractive index (REFI), single scattering albedo (SSA), asymmetry factor (ASYM), size distribution, and sphericity fraction. Comparison of aerosol optical properties using the simultaneous observations between two sites showed that correlation coefficients were larger than or equal to 0.98 for EAOD, EAE, and CWV, but smaller than or equal to 0.90 for AAOD, REFR, REFI, and SSA; the percentage differences for most of the parameters were less than 2%, but for EAODf were relatively large, ranging from 4.35 to 6.45%; the mean size distributions simultaneously showed bi-modal patterns, with two peak volumes at the radii of 0.15 and 2.94 μm; two kinds of tri-peak model were apparent during the study period; a case of EAODs at 440 nm differing by more than 0.2 between the two sites reflected the effect of local aerosol pollution. Comparison of aerosol characterization inferred by absorption properties using all the inversion data showed that classification using EAE, AAE, and sphericity fraction indicated the main aerosol type was “U/I&BB” (urban/industrial and biomass-burning), accounting for 59.87 and 57.43%, respectively; the volume size distribution retrievals binned by AAE exhibited coarse mode particles became dominant as AAE increased to 2.0; the SSA retrievals binned by AAE demonstrated SSA transitioned from spectra representing dust to U/I&BB pollution; averaged SSA for all the retrievals and SSA data partitioned by the EAE and η 675 nm suggested there were more absorbing aerosols at IAP. The results of the study will be beneficial in validating satellite observations and model simulation results, providing more accurate input parameters for model simulations.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program (2016YFA0601900), the NSFC Project of Nos. 41375153 and 41590874, CAMS Basic Research Project (2014R17), the Climate Change Special Fund of the CMA (CCSF201504), and Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Climate Change.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather (LASW) and Institute of Atmospheric Composition, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences CMA, Beijing, 100081, China

    Jie Yu, Huizheng Che, Ke Gui, Hong Wang, Yaqiang Wang, Tianze Sun & Xiaoye Zhang

  2. Plateau Atmospheric and Environment Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, College of Atmospheric Sciences, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, 610225, China

    Quanliang Chen & Ke Gui

  3. Laboratory for Middle Atmosphere and Global Environment Observation, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Hongbin Chen

  4. Laboratoire d’Optique Amosphérique, Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, 59655, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

    Philippe Goloub

  5. Key Laboratory for Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation of China Meteorological Administration, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Yu Zheng

  6. National Meteorological Center, CMA, Beijing, 100081, China

    Linchang An

  7. Key Laboratory of Regional Climate-Environment Research for Temperate East Asia, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Renjian Zhang

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

    Mingkai Dai

Authors
  1. Jie Yu
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  2. Huizheng Che
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  3. Quanliang Chen
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  4. Hongbin Chen
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  5. Philippe Goloub
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  6. Ke Gui
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  7. Yu Zheng
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  8. Hong Wang
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  9. Yaqiang Wang
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  10. Linchang An
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  11. Tianze Sun
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  12. Xiaoye Zhang
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  13. Renjian Zhang
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  14. Mingkai Dai
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Contributions

Jie Yu and Huizheng Che designed and conceived the study. Hongbin Chen, Philippe Goloub, Quanliang Chen, Ke Gui, and Yu Zheng analyzed data. Hong Wang, Yaqiang Wang, Linchang An, Tianze Sun and Xiaoye Zhang significantly contributed to the manuscript’s revision. Jie Yu analyzed the data and wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Huizheng Che.

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Yu, J., Che, H., Chen, Q. et al. Comparison of Aerosol Optical Properties Between Two Nearby Urban Sites in Beijing, China. Aerosol Sci Eng 1, 78–92 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41810-017-0009-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41810-017-0009-x

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