Multi-year variation of the aerosol optical properties and radiative forcing over East Asia

East Asian region has been experiencing extensive expansion in population growth and industrial advances in the past two decades. Consequently, anthropogenic atmospheric aerosols have caused serious air pollution problems. Aerosol properties and the resultant radiative impacts vary significantly in different parts of East Asia. In this study, we use ten years of ground-based observations of aerosol products from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) at selected sites over East Asia. Classification method using the Angstrom exponent and the single-scattering albedo is implemented to distinguish different types of aerosols. The climatologies and temporal variations of aerosol optical properties, such as aerosol optical depth, single-scattering albedo, and asymmetry factor, as well as their radiative forcings are analyzed for different types of aerosols. Our results indicate that East Asian aerosols substantially changed in terms of their spectral absorptivity, particle size and shape in the period of our study. Furthermore, the aerosol radiative forcings and efficiencies at the top the atmosphere and at the surface are sensitive to the changes in the aerosol properties.