Absorption properties of urban/suburban aerosols in China

The broadband diffuse radiation method is improved to retrieve the aerosol refractive index imaginary part (AIP) and broadband (400-1000 nm mean) single scattering albedo (SSA). In this method, four sets of SSA selection criteria are proposed for quality control. The method is used to retrieve AIP, SSA and absorptive optical thickness (AbOT) from routine hourly-exposed pyrheliometer and paranometer measurements over 11 sites (meteorological observatories) in China during 1998-2003. Apart from one suburban site (Ejin Qi), the other urban sites are all located around big or medium cities. As shown in the retrieval results, annual mean SSA during 1998-2003 changes from 0.941 (Wuhan) to 0.849 (Lanzhou), and AIP from 0.0054 to 0.0203. The 11-site average annual mean SSA and AIP are 0.898 and 0.0119, respectively. SSA during winter is smaller for most sites. There is an evidently positive correlation between SSA and aerosol optical thickness (ACT) for all sites. There is also a positive correlation between SSA and relative humidity for most sites, but a negative correlation for a few sites, such as Kashi and Urumqi in Northwest China.