Classification of atmospheric aerosol types based on photometric measurements and MUrA empirical regional model
E.S. Nagovitsyna1,2, A.P. Luzhetskaya1, V.A. Poddubny1,2
1Institute of Industrial Ecology Ural branch of RAS, Ekaterinburg, Russia
2Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Ekaterinburg, Russia
Keywords: aerosol type, regional aerosol model MUrA, AERONET, Middle Urals
Abstract
Identifying the types of atmospheric aerosols plays a significant role in evaluating the influence of aerosols on the climate system, identifying aerosol sources, and improving aerosol satellite retrieval algorithms. At present, there are various ways to classify aerosol particles, but most of them do not take into account regional characteristics. Based on the archival data of photometric observations of the robotic monitoring network AERONET in Middle Urals, a version of classification of the main types of aerosol particles is suggested. The classification was performed by the spectral values of the aerosol optical thickness by the method of k -medians. The initial centers of clusters were defined by spectral values of extinction coefficient calculated with MOPSMAP package from the regional aerosol model MUrA and the global model CALIPSO. Five types of aerosols were identified: Dust, Clean Continental (background), Polluted Continental/Smoke, Polluted dust, and Elevated Smoke. Analysis of data showed that Clean Continental and Dust aerosols are most common in the Middle Urals (26 and 25% of observations, respectively), while the presence of Polluted Continental/Smoke accounts for 20%. The suggested approach makes it possible to significantly supplement the information obtained by spectral ground-based photometric measurements.
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