Identification of columnar aerosol types under high aerosol optical depth conditions for a single AERONET site in Korea

Abstract

AbstractDominant aerosol types were classified using level 2 inversion products for the Anmyon Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) site in Korea for the period 1999–2007. The aerosol types were mineral dust (MD), MD mixed with carbon, and black carbon mixed coarse particles (BCCP) for coarse mode aerosols, black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC), and secondary inorganic ions (SII) for fine mode aerosols, and mixed particles between. The classification was carried out using a clustering method based on parameters, including single scattering albedo (SSA), absorption Angstrom exponent (AAE), and fine mode volume fraction (FMVF). Among the seven aerosol types, MD was distinct, with the highest AAE and a very low FMVF and SII with the highest SSA and FMVF. BCCP was introduced to designate coarse particles mixed with BC, of which the AAE was lower than 1, despite a low FMVF. In addition to a large difference in AAE between BC and OC, the SSA of OC was larger than that of BC, indicating the effects of the white smoke produced from the smoldering phase of biomass burning. Monthly variations of the aerosol types were well interpreted by meteorology and emissions and coincided with those in the previous studies. Applying our results to well‐characterized global AERONET sites, we confirmed that the aerosol types at Anmyon were valid at other sites. However, the results also showed that the mean properties for aerosol types were influenced by the specific aerosols prevalent at the study sites.