Toward characterization of the aerosol optical properties over Loess Plateau of Northwestern China

Aerosol optical properties were obtained from a CIMEL sunphotometer of the Aerosol Robotic Network at the Semi-Arid Climate and Environment Observatory of Lanzhou University (SACOL). SACOL is located over the Loess Plateau of the Northwestern China. The observed data are analyzed for the period of August 2006-October 2008. We find that aerosol optical depths (AODs) have a pronounced annual cycle, with a maximum dust aerosol loading during the spring. The 2-year average values of AOD, Ångström exponent (α), and water vapor path (WVP) along with their standard deviation (in parenthesis) are 0.35 (0.21), 0.93 (0.34), and 0.77 cm (0.52 cm), respectively. The probability distributions of these quantities all have one modal value, which are 0.3, 1.1, and 0.5 cm, respectively. There is a notable feature in the relationship between daily averaged AOD and Ångström exponent: a wide range of α corresponding to moderate to low aerosol optical depths (<0.8). There is no significant correlation between daily averaged WVP and AOD. However the daily averaged Ångström exponent and WVP show a significant positive correlation, indicating that the smaller aerosol particles present when the WVP is large. Variations of the retrieved aerosol volume size distributions are mainly associated with the changes in the concentration of the coarse aerosol fraction. The geometric mean radii for the fine and coarse aerosols are 0.18 μm (±0.03 μm), and 2.53 μm (±0.25 μm), respectively. The spectral dependences of the single scattering albedos are different between the dusty and non-dusty conditions. In the presence of dust, the SSAs increase slightly with wavelength. When dust is not a major component, the corresponding values decrease with wavelength.