Multi-peak accumulation and coarse modes observed from AERONET retrieved aerosol volume size distribution in Beijing

Abstract

We present characteristic peaks of atmospheric columnar aerosol volume size distribution retrieved from the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) ground-based Sun–sky radiometer observation, and their correlations with aerosol optical properties and meteorological conditions in Beijing over 2013. The results show that the aerosol volume particle size distribution (VPSD) can be decomposed into up to four characteristic peaks, located in accumulation and coarse modes, respectively. The mean center radii of extra peaks in accumulation and coarse modes locate around 0.28 (±0.09) to 0.38 (±0.11) and 1.25 (±0.56) to 1.47 (±0.30) μm, respectively. The multi-peak size distributions are found in different aerosol loading conditions, with the mean aerosol optical depth (440 nm) of 0.58, 0.49, 1.18 and 1.04 for 2-, 3-I/II and 4-peak VPSD types, while the correspondingly mean relative humidity values are 58, 54, 72 and 67 %, respectively. The results also show the significant increase (from 0.25 to 0.40 μm) of the mean extra peak median radius in the accumulation mode for the 3-peak-II cases, which agrees with aerosol hygroscopic growth related to relative humidity and/or cloud or fog processing.