scholarly journals Long-term variability of aerosol optical thickness in Eastern Europe over 2001–2014 according to the measurements at the Moscow MSU MO AERONET site with additional cloud and NO<sub>2</sub> correction

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 7843-7878
Author(s):  
N. Y. Chubarova ◽  
A. A. Poliukhov ◽  
I. D. Gorlova

Abstract. The aerosol properties of the atmosphere were obtained within the framework of the AERONET program at the Moscow State University Meteorological Observatory (Moscow MSU MO) over 2001–2014 period. The quality data control has revealed the necessity of their additional cloud and NO2 correction. The application of cloud correction according to hourly visual cloud observations provides a decrease in average aerosol optical thickness (AOT) at 500 nm of up to 0.03 compared with the standard dataset. We also show that the additional NO2 correction of the AERONET data is needed in large megalopolis, like Moscow, with 12 million residents and the NOx emission rates of about 100 kt yr−1. According to the developed method we estimated monthly mean NO2 content, which provides an additional decrease of 0.01 for AOT at 340 nm, and of about 0.015 – for AOT at 380 and 440 nm. The ratios of NO2 optical thickness to AOT at 380 and 440 nm are about 5–6 % in summer and reach 15–20 % in winter when both factors have similar effects on UV irradiance. Seasonal cycle of AOT at 500 nm is characterized by a noticeable summer and spring maxima, and minimum in winter conditions, changing from 0.08 in December and January up to 0.3 in August. The application of the additional cloud correction removes a local AOT maximum in February, and lowered the December artificial high AOT values. The pronounced negative AOT trends of about −1–5 % yr−1 have been obtained for most months, which could be attributed to the negative trends in emissions (E) of different aerosol precursors of about 116 Gg yr−2 in ESOx, 78 Gg yr−2 in ENMVOC, and 272 Gg yr−2 in ECO over European territory of Russia. No influence of natural factors on temporal AOT variations has been revealed.

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Y. Chubarova ◽  
A. A. Poliukhov ◽  
I. D. Gorlova

Abstract. The atmospheric aerosol properties were obtained within the framework of the AERONET program at the Moscow State University Meteorological Observatory (Moscow MSU MO) over the 2001–2014 period. The quality data control has revealed the necessity of additional cloud screening and NO2 correction. The application of additional cloud screening according to hourly visual cloud observations provides a decrease in monthly average aerosol optical thickness (AOT) at 500 nm of up to 0.03 compared with the standard data set. We also show that the additional NO2 correction of the AERONET version 2 data is needed in large megalopolis, like Moscow, with 12 million residents and NOx emission rates of about 100 kt yr−1. According to the developed method, we estimated monthly mean NO2 content, which provides an additional decrease of 0.01 for AOT at 340 nm, and of about 0.015 – for AOT at 380 and 440 nm. The ratios of NO2 optical thickness to AOT at 380 and 440 nm are about 5–6 % in summer and reach 15–20 % in winter when both factors have similar effects on UV irradiance. Seasonal cycle of AOT at 500 nm is characterized by a noticeable summer and spring maxima, and a minimum in winter conditions, changing from 0.08 in December and January up to 0.3 in August. The application of the additional cloud screening removes a local AOT maximum in February. Statistically significant negative trends in annual AOT for UV and mid-visible spectral range have been obtained both for average and 50 % quantile values. The pronounced negative changes were observed in most months with the rate of about −1–5 % yr−1 and could be attributed to the negative trends in emissions (E) of different aerosol precursors of about 135 Gg yr−2 in ESOx, 54 Gg yr−2 in ENMVOC, and slight negative changes in NOx over the European part of Russia. No significant influence of natural factors on temporal AOT variations has been revealed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 114-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia E. Chubarova ◽  
Elizaveta E. Androsova ◽  
Alexandr A. Kirsanov ◽  
Bernhard Vogel ◽  
Heike Vogel ◽  
...  

During the AeroRadCity-2018 spring aerosol experiment at the Moscow State University Meteorological Observatory the aerosol properties of the atmosphere and radiative aerosol effects were analyzed using a wide complex of measurements and model COSMO-ART simulations over Moscow domain. The program of measurements consisted of columnar aerosol AERONET retrievals, surface PM10, black carbon (BC) and aerosol gas precursors mass concentrations, as well as radiative measurements under various meteorological conditions. We obtained a positive statistically significant dependence of total and fine aerosol optical depth (AOD) mode (R2 ~0.4) with PM concentrations. This dependence has revealed a pronounced bifurcation point around PM10=0.04 mgm-3. The modelled BC concentration is in agreement with the observations and has a pronounced correlation with PM, but not with the AODs. The analysis of radiative effects of aerosol has revealed up to 30% loss for UV irradiance and 15% - for shortwave irradiance at high AOD in Moscow. Much intensive radiation attenuation is observed in the afternoon when remote pollution sources may affect solar fluxes at elevated boundary layer conditions. Negative (cooling) radiative forcing effect at the top of the atmosphere from -18 Wm-2 to -4 Wm-2 has been evaluated. Mean difference in visible AOD between urban and background conditions in Moscow and Zvenigorod was about 0.01 according to measurements and model simulations, while in some days the difference may increase up to 0.05. The generation of urban aerosol was shown to be more favorable in conditions with low intensity of pollutant dispersion, when mean deltaAOD550 was doubled from 0.01 to 0.02.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Elena Volpert ◽  
Natalia Chubarova

The temporal variability of solar shortwave radiation (SSR) has been assessed over northern Eurasia (40°–80° N; 10° W–180° E) by using an SSR reconstruction model since the middle of the 20th century. The reconstruction model estimates the year-to-year SSR variability as a sum of variations in SSR due to changes in aerosol, effective cloud amount and cloud optical thickness, which are the most effective factors affecting SSR. The retrievals of year-to-year SSR variations according to different factors were tested against long-term measurements in the Moscow State University Meteorological Observatory from 1968–2016. The reconstructed changes show a good agreement with measurements with determination factor R2 = 0.8. The analysis of SSR trends since 1979 has detected a significant growth of 2.5% per decade, which may be explained by its increase due to the change in cloud amount (+2.4% per decade) and aerosol optical thickness (+0.4% per decade). The trend due to cloud optical thickness was statistically insignificant. Using the SSR reconstruction model, we obtained the long-term SSR variability due to different factors for the territory of northern Eurasia. The increasing SSR trends have been detected on most sites since 1979. The long-term SSR variability over northern Eurasia is effectively explained by changes in cloud amount and, in addition, by changes in aerosol loading over the polluted regions. The retrievals of the SSR variations showed a good agreement with the changes in global radiance measurements from the World Radiation Data Center (WRDC) archive. The work was supported by RFBR grant number 18-05-00700.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 1863-1899
Author(s):  
N. Y. Chubarova

Abstract. Using the aerosol optical thickness at 550 nm (τ550) from MODIS (collection 5) combined with the aerosol products from the ground-based AERONET network, key aerosol parameters have been obtained with 1 degree resolution over Europe. Additional tests have revealed a satisfactory quality of the MODIS data, except in a few cases. Quality assured AERONET data are used for evaluating the Angstrom exponent, single scattering albedo and asymmetry factor, and for validating the final aerosol optical thickness in the UV spectral region. A method for extrapolating the aerosol parameters into the UV spectral region is discussed. The aerosol optical thickness distributions are considered together with meteorological fields from NOAA_NCEP_CPC_CAMS_OPI climatology. The τ340 is shown to vary significantly from approximately 0.01 to 0.9 depending on the season and location. Permanent elevated aerosol loading over several industrial areas is observed, which agrees with the output of chemical transport models. Using radiative transfer modeling, monthly mean UV loss due to aerosol was estimated. The absolute decrease in UV indices varies from less than 0.1 to 1.5. The relative UV attenuation has large spatial and temporal variations (from −1% to −17%) with a minimum towards the northwest and maxima over several southern local areas (Northern Italy, etc.) during the warm period.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M. Frolov

The calculating scheme for estimation of ground freezing depth under bare and covered with the snow cover ground surface on basis of air temperature and snow cover thickness is constructed and the example of calculations is performed for the site of the meteorological observatory of Lomonosov Moscow State University for winter periods of 2011/12-2017/18. The comparison of results of estimation scheme and observations indicated good correspondence.


Geographies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-397
Author(s):  
Kai Wang ◽  
Xuepeng Zhao

Nearly 40 years of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) climate data record (CDR) derived from NOAA operational satellite Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) observation over the global oceans is used to study the AOT changes due to the COVID-19 lockdown over the surrounding coastal oceanic areas of 18 megacities in the coast zone (MCCZ). The AOT difference between the annual mean AOT values of 2020 with COVID-19 lockdown and 2019 without the lockdown along with the 2020 AOT annual anomaly are used to effectively identify the AOT changes that are a result of the lockdown. We found that for most of the 18 MCCZ, the COVID-19 lockdowns implemented to contain the spread of the coronavirus resulted in a decrease between 1% and 30% in AOT due to reduced anthropogenic emissions associated with the lockdowns. However, the AOT long-term trend and other aerosol interannual variations due to favorable or unfavorable meteorological conditions may mask AOT changes due to the lockdown effect in some MCCZ. Different seasonal variations of aerosol amount in 2020 relative to 2019 due to other natural aerosol emission sources not influenced by the lockdown, such as dust storms and natural biomass burning and smoke, may also conceal a limited reduction in the annual mean AOT due to the lockdown in MCCZ with relatively loose lockdown. This study indicates that the use of long-term satellite observation is helpful for studying and monitoring the aerosol changes due to the emission reduction associated with the COVID-19 lockdown in the surrounding coastal oceanic areas of MCCZ, which will benefit the future development of the mitigation strategy for air pollution and emissions in megacities.


2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 5325-5388 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Yoon ◽  
W. von Hoyningen-Huene ◽  
A. A. Kokhanovsky ◽  
M. Vountas ◽  
J. P. Burrows

Abstract. Regular aerosol observations based on well-calibrated instruments have led to a better understanding of the aerosol radiative budget on Earth. In recent years, these instruments have played an important role in the determination of the increase of anthropogenic aerosols by means of long-term studies. Only few investigations regarding long-term trends of aerosol optical characteristics (e.g. Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) and Ångström Exponent (ÅE)) have been derived from ground-based observations. This paper aims to derive and discuss linear trends of AOT (440, 675, 870, and 1020 nm) and ÅE (440–870 nm) using AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) spectral observations. Additionally, temporal trends of Coarse- and Fine-mode dominant AOTs (CAOT and FAOT) have been estimated by applying an aerosol classification based on accurate ÅE and Ångström Exponent Difference (ÅED). In order to take into account the fact that cloud disturbance is having a significant influence on the trend analysis of aerosols, we introduce a weighted least squares regression depending on two weights: (1) monthly standard deviation and (2) Number of Observations (NO) per month. Temporal increase of FAOTs prevails over regions dominated by emerging economy or slash-burn agriculture in East Asia and South Africa. On the other hand, insignificant or negative trends for FAOTs are detected over Western Europe and North America. Over desert regions, both increase and decrease of CAOTs are observed depending on meteorological conditions.


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