Intercomparison between aerosol optical properties by a PREDE skyradiometer and CIMEL sunphotometer over Beijing, China

This study compares the aerosol optical and physical properties simultaneously measured by a SKYNET PREDE skyradiometer and AERONET/PHOTONS CIMEL sunphotometer at a location in Beijing, China. Aerosol op- tical properties (AOP) including the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), Angstrom exponent ( ), volume size distribution, single scattering albedo (!) and the complex refractive in- dex were compared. The difference between the two types of instruments was less than 1.3% for the AOD and less than 4% for the single scattering albedo below the wavelength of 670 nm. There is a difference between the volume size distri- bution patterns derived from two instruments, which is prob- ably due to difference of measurement protocols and inver- sion algorithms for the respective instruments. AOP under three distinct weather conditions (background, haze, and dust days) over Beijing were compared by using the retrieved skyradiometer and sunphotometer data com- bined with MODIS satellite results, pyranometer measure- ments, PM10 measurements, and backtrajectory analysis. The results show that the significant difference of AOP un- der background, haze, and dust days over Beijing is probably due to different aerosol components under distinct weather conditions.

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