Understanding the Symbiotic Relationship Affecting Atmospheric Processes and Aerosols Concentrations in Reno, Nevada, from 2012 to 2019

The role of aerosols is relevant to answer key questions about climate change due to poor air quality. In addition, understanding the interaction between weather phenomena and aerosol physical properties on long-term studies can be difficult due to lack of co-located instrumentation and the sparse aerosol monitoring stations. In this regard, Reno, Nevada, USA has an aerosol physical properties laboratory equipped with in-situ photoacoustic and integrated nephelometer (PIN) instruments at multiple wavelengths which measure ground-level absorption and scattering light coefficients, as well as a Cimel CE-318 sunphotometer which is useful to derived spectral columnar aerosol properties. Reno is a mid-sized town located in a mountain valley characterized by a dry environment, urban emissions from traffic, wind-blown dust from the Black Rock Desert, biomass burning from natural and anthropogenic fires, intercontinental transport of aerosol pollution from Eurasia, and temperature inversions from cool air pools that produce high concentrations of particulate matter (PM) during winter. The Sierra Nevada Mountains complicate the air pollution transport mechanisms to Reno due to local circulations (e.g. Washoe Zephyr) and entrainment due to complex planetary boundary layer (PBL) physics. For this investigation, intensive and extensive aerosol properties are compared using ground-level in-situ and columnar aerosol properties at Reno from 2012-2019. In addition, datasets from weather stations and balloon soundings from the National Weather Service are accounted to understand the role of weather and PBL physics in surface and columnar levels of aerosol pollution. PM and gases (e.g. O₃ and NO_x) datasets are considered to investigate the diurnal and nocturnal cycles of air pollution and relate chemical speciation of aerosol to aerosol properties at ground-level. Because of the time frame of the co-located observations, extreme aerosol pollution events (e.g. smoke, wind-blown dust, and temperature inversions) are studied with the objective to determine the impact of weather on those events. Other meteorological phenomena such as seasonal trends, ENSO, and dry rivers are considered to understand the role of these phenomena in aerosol concentrations