Variations of Aerosol Optical Depth and Angstrom Parameters at a Suburban Location in Iran During 2009–2010
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Variations of aerosol optical depth and Angstrom parameters at a suburban location in Iran during 2009–2010 M Khoshsima1,∗, A A Bidokhti2 and F Ahmadi-Givi2 1Department of Meteorology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran. 2Institute of Geophysics, University of Tehran, Tehran, P. O. Box 14155-6466, Iran. ∗Corresponding author. e-mail: [email protected] Solar irradiance is attenuated spectrally when passing through the earth’s atmosphere and it is strongly dependent on sky conditions, cleanliness of the atmosphere, composition of aerosols and gaseous con- stituents. In this paper, aerosol optical properties including aerosol optical depth (AOD), Angstrom exponent (α) and Angstrom turbidity coefficient (β) have been investigated during December 2009 to October 2010, in a suburban area of Zanjan (36◦N, 43◦E, 1700 m), in the north–west of Iran, using meteorological and sun photometric data. Results show that turbidity varies on all time scales, from the seasonal to hourly, because of changes in the atmospheric meteorological parameters. The values of α range from near zero to 1.67. The diurnal variation of AOD in Zanjan is about 15%. The diurnal vari- ability of AOD, showed a similar variation pattern in spring (including March, April, May) and winter (December, January, February) and had a different variation pattern in summer (June, July, August) and autumn (September and October). During February, spring and early summer winds transport continental aerosols mostly from the Iraq (dust events) and cause the increase of beta and turbidity of atmosphere of Zanjan. 1. Introduction On a global scale, the natural sources of aero- sols are more important than the anthropogenic Suspended aerosol particles in the atmosphere, apart aerosols, but regionally anthropogenic aerosols are from health effects and indirect effects on clouds, significant (Coakley et al. 1983; Kaufman and play a significant role in global change issues, since Fraser 1983; Coakley and Cess 1985; Kiehl and they influence the earth’s radiation balance and Breigleb 1993; Andreae 1995; Ramanathan et al. climate by scattering or absorbing both incoming 2001; Satheesh and Moorthy 2005). and outgoing radiation. Tropospheric aerosols arise Solar irradiance is attenuated spectrally when from natural sources, such as airborne dust, sea- passing through the Earth’s atmosphere. Attenua- spray and volcanoes and from anthropogenic sources, tion of solar irradiance is strongly dependent on sky such as sulfate, ammonium, nitrate and also from conditions, cleanliness of the atmosphere, and com- gas-to particle conversion processes (Seinfeld and position of aerosols and gaseous constituents. In Pandis 1998; Satheesh and Ramanathan 2000; a clean and dry atmospheric condition, solar irra- Lelieveld 2001; Ramanathan et al. 2001). diance is attenuated by atmospheric constituents Keywords. Turbidity; aerosol optical depth; Angstrom exponent; suburban area; sun photometer; Zanjan. J. Earth Syst. Sci. 123, No. 1, February 2014, pp. 187–199 c Indian Academy of Sciences 187 188 M Khoshsima et al. Figure 1. The locations of the different stations used in city of Zanjan: Sun photometer instrument (1), air quality station (2) and synoptic station (3) which is about 3 km distance from station (1). Variations of AOD and Angstrom parameters at a suburban area of Iran 189 of air molecules, gases, whose contents are nearly 43◦E), located around 1700 m above sea level on invariable. a wide plain in the north–west of Iran (figure 1). In the real atmosphere, the light attenuation The city lies in a valley between the two moun- processes are augmented by aerosol particles scat- tains. The annual mean of temperature in the last tering and absorption by water vapour. The atten- 33 years is 10.7◦C, precipitation is 295 mm and uation caused by these two processes leads to relative humidity is around 53%. atmospheric turbidity (Braslau and Dave 1973; The structure of this paper is as follows. In Hainel et al. 1990; Jacovides et al. 1994). section 2, we present the instrumentation and data Turbidity is a dimensionless measure of the opac- collection, such as sun photometric measurements ity of a vertical column of the atmosphere. Param- used to calculate the AOD and Angstrom indices eters such as the Angstrom indices (α and β)and (α, β). The field measurement analysis and more aerosol optical depth (AOD) are typically used for discussion on aerosol optical properties parameters atmospheric aerosol optical properties. Angstrom are given in section 3. Finally the conclusion of this turbidity coefficient (β) is used as a measure of work will be presented in section 4. turbidity. Knowing the atmospheric turbidity coef- ficients is very important in prediction of the availability of solar energy under cloudless skies. 2. Instrumentation, data collection Observations of aerosol parameters and turbidity and analysis over the land and ocean can be measured using a variety of instruments on different platforms such 2.1 Aerosol optical depth (AOD) as active (e.g., LIDAR) and passive (sun pho- tometer and satellite) remote sensing techniques Aerosol optical depth (AOD) is a measure of the (Moorthy et al. 2005; Kokhanovsky 2008). total column extinction of transmitted radiation The Angstrom exponent dependence on aerosol by atmospheric air molecules, aerosols (e.g., urban optical depth has been investigated in Asia and haze, smoke particles, desert dust, sea salt) and Africa by several authors (e.g. Moorthy and gases in the solar electromagnetic spectrum (WMO Satheesh 2000; Cachorro et al. 2001; Cheng et al. 1994). 2006; Kaskaoutis et al. 2007; Ogunjobi et al. The total optical depth (τtot.) can be obtained 2008) to determine different aerosol types for spe- using the following equation according to Beer- Lambert law, cific locations. The relationship between AOD and Angstrom exponent is also used in order to explain V = V /d2 exp (−τ (λ)m) , (1) the dependence of aerosol loading on particle size. 0 tot. Several studies have been carried out on the aerosol where V is the digital voltage measured at wave- properties over Asia using such relationships length λ, by a sun photometer and is propor- (e.g., Indian, Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea by tional to the spectral irradiance (I ) reaching the Nakajima and Higurashi 1998; Hussain et al. 2000; instrument at the surface. V 0 is the extraterres- Moorthy et al. 2003, 2005;Zakeyet al. 2004; trial voltage. I0 and V0 are estimated at the top Satheesh and Moorthy 2005, 2006;PingGuoet al. of the atmospheric irradiance and corresponding 2009; Chih-Chung and Hui-HsuanYeh 2010; Lodhi voltages, respectively. d is the ratio of the average et al. 2013). to the actual Earth–Sun distance, τtot. is the total Also many studies concerning atmospheric tur- optical depth and m is the optical airmass (Holben bidity and aerosol optical properties in different et al. 1998). For obtaining the AOD, the measured parts of the world (America and Europe) have optical thickness of atmosphere has to be corrected been performed (Polavarapu 1978; Canada et al. as: 1993; Gueymard and Garrison 1998; Gueymard τ (λ)=τ (λ) − τ (λ) − τ (λ), (2) and Vignola 1998; Cucumo et al. 1999, 2000; Rapti aer tot. R g 2000; Hand et al. 2004). However, a few works where τtot.(λ) is the total atmospheric optical have been carried out in the Middle-East region depth, τR is the component due to Rayleigh scat- of Asia. The limited number of studies on the tering, and τg, is the optical depth due to ozone, atmospheric optical properties in this region makes nitrogen dioxide and water vapor. The ozone con- it worth investigating even for a local region tribution to optical depth only becomes significant (WMO 1994). Aerosol optical properties and tur- for wavelengths <330 nm while the NO2 contribu- bidity vary with local meteorological conditions tion is very small over the whole wavelength range and sources of natural and anthropogenic aerosols. (Brogniez et al. 2008). Therefore, study of aerosol optical properties and The amount of water vapour is estimated from turbidity should be determined regionally. the solar intensity measurements at 936 nm (water In this study, atmospheric optical properties absorption peak) and 1020 nm (no absorption by were investigated for the city of Zanjan (36◦N, water) in cm (integrated columnar water vapour 190 M Khoshsima et al. thickness). Therefore, AOD can be easily obtained direction, relative humidity and visibility were in wavelengths of non-absorption (Gueymard 1994). taken from the synoptic station of Zanjan (see figure 1). The sun photometric data for a sub- 2.2 Angstrom turbidity formula urban area, 3 km away from the city center of Zanjan, were also collected. This data is pro- Angstrom suggested an empirical formula for duced by a multi-channel (with wavelength range the attenuation of scattering and absorption by of 440 to 1020 nm) automatic optical instrument aerosols. According to his formula, the AOD, which measures the spectrum of direct solar irra- τaer(λ), is related to wavelength (λ in μm) through diance. The instrument is made by the CIMEL Angstrom’s equation: Electronic Company and its technical information −α along with operational modes has been described in τaer = βλ , (3) the CIMEL user manual (Rainwater and Gregory where α and β are known as Angstrom parameters. 2005). Direct measurements of the Sun and the sky The Angstrom exponent, α is related to the size can be made with several programmable sequences. distribution of the aerosol particles. Large values The direct sun measurement is made in five spec- of α indicate a relatively high ratio of small parti- tral bands (440, 670, 870, 936, 1020 nm) and cles to large particles It varies in the range of 0–4 requires approximately 10 s. A sequence of three approaching 4, when the aerosol particles are very such measurements can be made 30 s apart creat- small (i.e., the order of air molecules) and zero for ing a triplet observation per wavelength.