Comparison of Atmospheric Column Optical Depth Measurements for Urban Reno, NV with Three Different Sun Photometers and In Situ Measurements Combined with Boundary Layer Height Estimation
Abstract
Reno, Nevada, USA is located in a mountain valley often characterized by very dry conditions, clear sky and red sunsets during the summer season, with rare incursions of monsoonal moisture. This city is subject to moderately strong nocturnal inversions nearly every day in summer. Urban aerosols, wind blown dust, as well as occasional biomass burning smoke from natural and non-natural fires all contribute to the optical depth. Because of its geographical position, drastic changes in weather conditions and variations in aerosol optical properties make Reno an excellent location for evaluating measurements of aerosol optical depth in order to determine particulate air pollution concentration as well as to provide input for models of atmospheric radiation transfer and evaluation of satellite-based aerosol optical sensing measurements. Aerosol optical depth can be calculated by in situ photoacoustic measurements of aerosol light absorption and reciprocal nephelometer scattering coefficients and estimation of aerosol mixing height. LED-based hand-held sun photometers are commonly used as inexpensive instruments for informal networks. However, the LED emission wavelength maximum and bandwidth are higher and narrower than the LED reception wavelength spectrum, necessitating empirical determination of an equivalent wavelength. The manually operated spectrometer and Cimel sun photometer measurements provide the most accurate and precise column aerosol optical depth. This paper makes a comparison between these four instruments for measurements obtained during the summer and fall seasons in order to study how the total and aerosol optical depth change during dry and moist conditions. Ångström exponents of extinction and absorption are also analyzed to provide insight on aerosol size distribution and composition, respectively.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFM.A21B0066L
- Keywords:
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- 0305 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE / Aerosols and particles