Using EOF analysis to qualitatively analyze, and identify inhomogeneities in, data from ground‐based aerosol monitoring instruments

Abstract

Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis is performed on ground‐based shadowband radiometer and Sun photometer data. The data come from Multifilter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (MFRSR) instruments located at the central and extended facilities of the Southern Great Plains (SGP) research site of the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program, as well as the Rotating Shadowband Spectroradiometer (RSS) 102 and 105 and the CIMEL Sun photometer CSPHOT located at the central facility at SGP. The EOFs show the variability in total aerosol optical depth and provide some qualitative information on the separation of the coarse and fine aerosol modes. In addition, as has been demonstrated previously with satellite data, EOF analysis also exposes several flaws and inconsistencies within the ground‐based data sets. These inhomogeneities include optical depth anomalies in some MFRSR filters, wavelength shifts in the RSS, and problems with the data transmitter of the CIMEL instrument. Therefore EOF analysis is shown to be a quick and effective means not only of assessing the general aerosol behavior in the air above a particular monitoring instrument, but also of identifying both known and unanticipated influences on the data coming from within the instrument itself.