All-Sky Direct Radiative Effects of Urban Aerosols in Beijing and Shanghai, China

Abstract

AbstractAerosol particles can directly alter the radiation balance by scattering and absorbing incident solar radiation, thus decreasing the amount of light reaching the surface and increasing the fraction of diffuse radiation—the so-called ‘aerosol direct radiative effect’. Using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aerosol products, the aerosol direct radiative effects under all-sky conditions in Beijing and Shanghai in 2007 were explored in this study. The total shortwave radiation was calculated using the Fu-Liou radiative transfer model, with the influence of clouds taken into account through sunshine-duration data, and the diffuse radiation was calculated with radiation decomposition models. Good correlation between measured and calculated total radiation was obtained at both cities, with an R greater than 0.9, and thus this calculation method was adopted to derive aerosol direct radiative effects. The presence of aerosols caused the mean total and diffuse solar radiation reaching the s...