Intercomparison between the aerosol optical properties retrieved by different inversion methods from SKYNET sky radiometer observations over Qionghai and Yucheng in China

Abstract

Abstract. This study analyzed the aerosol optical properties derived by SKYRAD.pack versions 5.0 and 4.2 (referred to as V5.0 and V4.2) using the radiometer measurements over Qionghai and Yucheng in China, two new sites of the sky radiometer network (SKYNET). As V5.0 uses an a priori size distribution function (SDF) of a bimodal log-normal function, the volume size distribution retrieved by V5.0 presented bimodal patterns with a 0.1–0.2 µm fine particle mode and a 3.0–6.0 µm coarse particle mode both over Qionghai and Yucheng. The differences in the volume size distributions between the two versions were very large for the coarse mode with a radius of over 5 µm. The single scattering albedos (SSAs) by V5.0 correlated with SSAs by V4.2 with R=0.88, 0.87, 0.90, 0.88, and 0.92 at wavelengths of 400, 500, 670, 870, and 1020 nm over Qionghai, respectively. The correlation coefficients were around 0.95, 0.95, 0.96, 0.94, and 0.91 at the five channels in Yucheng. An error of ±5 % for the solid view angle (SVA) introduced about ±2 % differences in retrieved SSA values both by V4.2 and V5.0. An error of ±50 % for ground surface albedo (Ag) caused about 1 % averaged differences in retrieved SSA values by the two versions. With the atmospheric pressure (PRS) increased by 1 %, 2 %, 3 %, and 4 %, the averaged changes in SSAs did not exceed 0.8 % both by V4.2 and V5.0. The SSA differences at 500 nm between the two versions decreased, while aerosol optical depths (AODs) increased over both sites. The seasonal variability of the aerosol properties over Qionghai and Yucheng was investigated based on SKYRAD.pack V5.0. The seasonal averaged AOD over Qionghai had higher values in spring, winter, and autumn and lower values in summer. The AOD averages were commonly higher in summer and spring than in winter and autumn in Yucheng. The lowest seasonal averaged SSAs were both observed in winter at the two sites. The fraction of the fine aerosol particles was much smaller in summer than in other seasons over Qionghai; the volume fraction of the coarse-mode particle in Yucheng had much larger values compared to the fine-mode particle in all seasons. The validation results provide valuable references for continued improvement of the retrieval algorithms of SKYNET and other aerosol observational networks.