Multi-peak accumulation and coarse modes observed from AERONET retrieved aerosol volume size distribution in Beijing

• Published in: Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics
• Main Authors: Zhang, Ying, Li, Zhengqiang, Zhang, Yuhuan, Chen, Yu, Cuesta, Juan, Ma, Yan
• Other Authors: Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth (RADI), Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing (CAS), China Meteorological Administration (CMA), Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques (LISA (UMR_7583)), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 (UPEC UP12)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité), Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Faculté des sciences et technologie (UPEC FST), Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 (UPEC UP12)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2016
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.STU.ME]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Meteorology; Aerosol Robotic Network
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04279093; https://hal.science/hal-04279093/document; https://hal.science/hal-04279093/file/MAAP-D-15-00155_R2.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-016-0435-3

We present characteristic peaks of atmospheric columnar aerosol volume size distribution retrieved from the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) ground-based Sun–sky radiometer observation, and their correlations with aerosol optical properties and meteorological conditions in Beijing over 2013. The results show that the aerosol volume particle size distribution (VPSD) can be decomposed into up to four characteristic peaks, located in accumulation and coarse modes, respectively. The mean center radii of extra peaks in accumulation and coarse modes locate around 0.28 (±0.09) to 0.38 (±0.11) and 1.25 (±0.56) to 1.47 (±0.30) μm, respectively. The multi-peak size distributions are found in different aerosol loading conditions, with the mean aerosol optical depth (440 nm) of 0.58, 0.49, 1.18 and 1.04 for 2-, 3-I/II and 4-peak VPSD types, while the correspondingly mean relative humidity values are 58, 54, 72 and 67 %, respectively. The results also show the significant increase (from 0.25 to 0.40 μm) of the mean extra peak median radius in the accumulation mode for the 3-peak-II cases, which agrees with aerosol hygroscopic growth related to relative humidity and/or cloud or fog processing.