Improving the estimating accuracy of extinction coefficient of surface aerosol with a new layer-resolved model in China

Abstract

The aerosol extinction coefficient was an important factor for air quality. To estimate the aerosol extinction levels, widely used pure statistical models are generally not based on aerosol vertical structures. In this study, we estimated large-scale aerosol extinction coefficients by developing a new layer-resolved model with explicit inference for aerosol vertical distribution. The CALIOP aerosol profile, MODIS AOD and reanalysis boundary layer height data are used. The layer-resolved model was formulated by developing an explicit, steady and straightforward relationship between aerosol within boundary layer and corresponding AOD values. The estimated surface extinction coefficient from this model was compared against the values derived from station visibility observations in China in 2016. The results revealed that our model had outperformed the traditional one-layer model and the simplified two-layer model. Specifically, the numbers of ground stations with an NME value < 0.4 are enhanced by a percentage > 100%, with the NME values significantly decreased from 46%, 48% to 36% and RMSE values from 0.27, 0.25 to 0.21 km−1. Our model is easy for operational implementation thanks to its clear structure and input, and also informative to understand aerosol vertical distributions. Furthermore, this work will also be beneficial to air quality modeling studies to improve accuracy estimating ground-level PM2.5 concentrations.