Summer-winter differences in the relationships among background southeastern U.S. aerosol optical, micro-physical, and chemical properties

Abstract:

Relationships among aerosol optical, micro-physical, and chemical properties are useful for evaluating regional climate models, developing satellite-based aerosol retrievals, and understanding aerosol sources and processes. Since aerosol loading and optical properties vary primarily on seasonal scales in the southeastern U.S., it is important that such studies be carried out over multiple seasons but few (if any) such multi-season studies have been conducted in the region. The high-elevation, semi-rural AppalAIR facility at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC (1080m ASL, 36.21⁰N, 81.69⁰W) is home to the only co-located NOAA-ESRL and AERONET monitoring sites in the eastern U.S. Measurements of size-resolved, non-refractory sub-1µm aerosol composition were also made by a co-located AMS during the 2012-2013 summers and 2013 winter. Systematic relationships among aerosol optical, microphysical, and chemical properties were developed to better understand aerosol sources and processes and for use in higher-dimension aerosol classification schemes. Some of the major findings will be presented.

Higher values of lower tropospheric aerosol light scattering coefficient at 550nm (a proxy for aerosol loading) are associated with higher single-scattering albedo (SSA) and lower hemispheric backscatter fraction (b) during both summer and winter. Absorption Angstrom exponent (AAE) is typically well under 1 during summer and near 1.3-1.4 during winter. Lowest summer AAE values coincide with large, highly-reflective particles and higher aerosol light scattering coefficient but summer AAE is only weakly anti-correlated with organic and sulfate mass concentrations. Winter AAE is consistent with a mixture of elemental carbon and light-absorbing organic carbon, possibly influenced by regional residential wood-burning during winter. The hygroscopic dependence of visible light scattering is sensitive to sulfate and organic aerosol mass fractions during both summer and winter. Hemispheric backscatter fraction is ~30% higher in winter than summer. Scattering Angstrom exponent is a less sensitive indicator of fine-mode aerosol size than b and is more sensitive to fine-mode aerosol fraction. SSA, b, and AAE are also sensitive to changes in scattering coefficient.