Assessment of Aerosol Absorption/Scattering via a PM10 Air Quality Sensor, a PM2.5 Nano-aerosol Particle Counter, and an Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Model

Without question, atmospheric aerosols and their optical properties are of significance to the local as well as regional and global downwelling/upwelling radiation budget, impacting both short- and longer-term human activity, including both observation and communication, as well as that effected by air quality and climate. Multiple global aerosol networks of varying objective, including pollution monitoring and climate assessment, use a wide-ranging assortment of in-situ, point and regional/global remote sensing instruments to evaluate aerosol loading and in some cases the composite aerosol optical effects. The latter capability is largely associated with Government sponsored networks including the NOAA Federated Aerosol Network (NFAN) and NASA Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET), instrumented with nephelometers, aethalometers and surface-to-space sun/lunar and sky-scanning radiometers. This research demonstrates the practicability of a simpler and relatively affordable alternative for evaluating aerosol extinction, and separated scattering and absorption, at any wavelength from the UV to the RF. The study assessed a surface-based architecture anchored upon the worldwide, civil community’s air quality monitoring network of PM10 Purple Air sensors, a PM2.5 nano-aerosol condensation particle counter, as well as a verified and validated, first-principles atmospheric characterization and radiative transfer package, the Laser Environmental Effects Definition and Reference (LEEDR) code. The investigation used data gathered by the local Air Force Institute of Technology’s standard NFAN WPB site instrumentation, which includes a nephelometer and the NOAA, Continuous Light Absorption Photometer (CLAP).