Abstract
The aerosol absorption Ångström exponent (AAE) is widely used to indicate aerosol absorption spectrum variations and is an important parameter for characterizing aerosol optical absorption properties. This study discusses the relationship between aerosol AAEs and their colors numerically. By combining light scattering simulations, a two-stream radiative transfer model, and an RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) color model, aerosol colors that can be sensed by human eyes are numerically generated with both the solar spectrum and human eye response taken into account. Our results indicate that the responses of human eyes to visible light might be more significant than the incident spectrum in the simulation of aerosol color in the atmosphere. Using the improved numerical simulation algorithm, we obtain the color change of absorption aerosols with different AAEs. When the AAE value is small, the color of the aerosol is generally black and gray. When the AAE value increases to approximately 2 and the difference between the light transmittances at wavelengths of 400 nm and 730 nm is greater than 0.2, the aerosol will appear brown or yellow.
Highlights
Aerosols have important influences on global radiation, the formation of clouds, environmental problems, and climate [1,2]
We improved methods to simulate the aerosol color in the ambient atmosphere
We use the solar spectrum instead of RGB three-wavelength mixed light, and we use the spectral relative response of the human optical receiver instead of the simulation condition that humans have the same response to different wavelengths of light
Summary
Dapeng Zhao 1,2, * , Yan Yin 1,2 , Chao Liu 1,2 , Chunsong Lu 1,2 and Xiaofeng Xu 1,2. Key Laboratory for Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation of China Meteorological Administration, School of Atmospheric Physics, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China. Received: 8 January 2020; Accepted: 5 February 2020; Published: 11 February 2020
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