Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Aerosol characterization in Northern Africa, Northeastern Atlantic, Mediterranean Basin and Middle East from direct-sun AERONET

• Main Authors: S. Basart, C. Pérez, E. Cuevas, J. M. Baldasano, G. P. Gobbi
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Aerosol Robotic Network
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.187.6809; http://www.bsc.es/media/2680.pdf

Abstract. We provide an atmospheric aerosol characterization for North Africa, Northeastern Atlantic, Mediterranean and Middle East based on the analysis of quality-assured direct-sun observations of 39 stations of the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) which include at least an annual cycle within the 1994–2007 period. We extensively test and apply the recently introduced graphical method of Gobbi and co-authors to track and discriminate different aerosol types and quantify the contribution of mineral dust. The method relies on the combined analysis of the ˚Angström exponent (α) and its spectral curvature δα. Plotting data in these coordinates allows to infer aerosol fine mode radius (Rf) and fractional contribution (η) to total Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and separate AOD growth due to fine-mode aerosol humidification and/or coagulation from AOD growth due to the increase