Seasonal variation of tropospheric aerosol properties by direct and scattered solar radiation spectroscopy

Long-term characterization of tropospheric aerosol has been carried out at Chiba, Japan, using a compact, stand-alone spectroradiometer under clear-sky conditions between August 2007 and March 2009. The spectra of direct solar radiation, aureole, and scattered solar radiation in various directions are observed in a wavelength range between 350 and 1050 nm with an optical resolution of 10 nm. Radiative transfer calculation using the MODTRAN4 code is employed to retrieve aerosol optical parameters such as aerosol optical depth (AOD), extinction coefficient, single-scattering albedo, scattering phase function, and asymmetry parameter, as well as water vapor column amount. The retrieved value of AOD varies in the range 0.1-0.5, while the water vapor column amount changes from 0.2 to 4 g/cm², showing reasonable agreements with the concurrent measurements with a sunphotometer and a microwave radiometer, respectively. The seasonal variation of the retrieved parameters indicates the major impacts of dust particles in spring, sea salt particles in summer, and anthropogenic fine particles in winter.