Analysis of optical properties of atmospheric aerosols inferred from spectral AODs and Ångström wavelength exponent

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• 作者：G. Balakrishnaiah^a ; K. Raghavendra kumar^a ; B. Suresh Kumar Reddy^a ; K. Rama Gopal^a ; R.R. Reddy^a ; ^{rajururreddy@gmail.com"" rel=""nofollow} ; L.S.S. Reddy^a ; Y. Nazeer Ahammed^b ; K. Narasimhulu^c ; K. Krishna Moorthy^d ; S. Suresh Babu^d
• 关键词：Aerosols ; Aerosol optical depth ; Å ; ngstr&#xf6 ; m exponent ; Water vapor content ; India
• 刊名：Atmospheric Environment
• 出版年：2011
• 出版时间：February 2011
• 年：2011
• 卷：45
• 期：6
• 页码：1275-1285
• 全文大小：746 K

文摘

Aerosol measurements over a tropical semi-arid site in Anantapur (14.62°N, 77.65°E, 331 m asl), India, provide the variabilities of aerosol characteristics for the period of January 2007–December 2008. The mean values of aerosol optical depth at 500 nm (AOD_500 nm) over 2-year period are found to be 0.37 ± 0.11, 0.39 ± 0.13 and 0.30 ± 0.10 during winter, summer and monsoon seasons, respectively. A rather systematic variation is seen with AOD peaking in the month of March, falling off gradually to the lowest value in June and increasing slowly superposed with some modulations, which show a weak secondary peak in October. The mean and standard values of the Ångstr&#xf6;m exponent, α (turbidity coefficient, β), are found to be 1.06 ± 0.33 (0.17 ± 0.05) during winter, 0.97 ± 0.35 (0.22 ± 0.04) during summer and 0.85 ± 0.26 (0.16 ± 0.06) during monsoon. The frequency distribution of α is relatively broad with two modes for dusty (α < 1) and non-dusty (α > 1) situations. This frequency distribution of α reveals a great dispersion of a values in all seasons thus denoting variability in the aerosol-size distribution. In this study, spectral AOD and Ångstr&#xf6;m exponent data are analyzed to obtain information about the adequacy of the simple use of the Ångstr&#xf6;m exponent and its variation for characterizing optical properties of aerosols, and exploring possibilities for a more efficient characterization of them. Using the least-squares fit method, the Ångstr&#xf6;m parameter, α, is calculated in the spectral interval 380–850 nm, along with coefficients a₁ and a₂ of the second-order polynomial fit to the plotted logarithm of AOD versus the logarithm of wavelength. The correlations between the coefficients a₁ and a₂ with months and α are discussed in the paper.