Technical note: Absorption aerosol optical depth components from AERONET observations of mixed dust plumes

© Author(s) 2019.Absorption aerosol optical depth (AAOD) as obtained from sun–sky photometer measurements provides a measure of the light-absorbing properties of the columnar aerosol loading. However, it is not an unambiguous aerosol-type-specific parameter, particularly if several types of absorbing aerosols, for instance black carbon (BC) and mineral dust, are present in a mixed aerosol plume. The contribution of mineral dust to total aerosol light absorption is particularly important at UV wavelengths. In this study we refine a lidar-based technique applied to the separation of dust and non-dust aerosol types for the use with Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) direct sun and inversion products. We extend the methodology to retrieve AAOD related to non-dust aerosol (AAODnd) and BC (AAODBC). We test the method at selected AERONET sites that are frequently affected by aerosol plumes that contain a mixture of Saharan or Asian mineral dust and biomass-burning smoke or anthropogenic pollution, respectively. We find that aerosol optical depth (AOD) related to mineral dust as obtained with our methodology is frequently smaller than coarse-mode AOD. This suggests that the latter is not an ideal proxy for estimating the contribution of mineral dust to mixed dust plumes. We present the results of the AAODBC retrieval for the selected AERONET sites and compare them to coincident values provided in the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring System aerosol reanalysis.We find that modelled and AERONET AAODBC are most consistent for Asian sites or at Saharan sites with strong local anthropogenic sources.Peer reviewe

Vertical variation of optical properties of mixed Asian dust/pollution plumes according to pathway of air mass transport over East Asia

© Author(s) 2015. This is an Open Access article made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/We use five years (2009-2013) of multiwavelength Raman lidar measurements at Gwangju, South Korea (35.10° N, 126.53° E) for the identification of changes of optical properties of East Asian dust depending on its transport path over China. Profiles of backscatter and extinction coefficients, lidar ratios, and backscatter-related Ångström exponents (wavelength pair 355/532 nm) were measured at Gwangju. Linear particle depolarization ratios were used to identify East Asian dust layers. We used backward trajectory modeling to identify the pathway and the vertical position of dust-laden air masses over China during long-range transport. Most cases of Asian dust events can be described by the emission of dust in desert areas and subsequent transport over highly polluted regions of China. The Asian dust plumes could be categorized into two classes according to the height above ground at which these plumes were transported: (case I) the dust layers passed over China at high altitude levels (> 3 km) until arrival over Gwangju, and (case II) the Asian dust layers were transported near the surface and within the lower troposphere (< 3 km) over industrialized areas before they arrived over Gwangju. We find that the optical characteristics of these mixed Asian dust layers over Gwangju differ depending on their vertical position above ground over China and the change of height above ground during transport. The mean linear particle depolarization ratio was 0.21 ± 0.06 (at 532 nm), the mean lidar ratios were 52 ± 7 sr at 355 nm and 53 ± 8 sr at 532 nm, and the mean Ångström exponent was 0.74 ± 0.31 for case I. In contrast, plumes transported at lower altitudes (case II) showed low depolarization ratios (0.13 ± 0.04 at 532 nm), and higher lidar ratio (63 ± 9 sr at 355 nm and 62 ± 8 sr at 532 nm) and Ångström exponents (0.98 ± 0.51). These numbers show that the optical characteristics of mixed Asian plumes are more similar to optical characteristics of urban pollution. We find a decrease of the linear depolarization ratio of the mixed dust/pollution plume depending on transport time if the pollution layer traveled over China at low heights, i.e., below approximately 3 km above ground. In contrast, we do not find such a trend if the dust plumes traveled at heights above 3 km over China. We need a longer time series of lidar measurements in order to determine in a quantitative way the change of optical properties of dust with transport time.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Analytic study of the three-urn model for separation of sand

We present an analytic study of the three-urn model for separation of sand. We solve analytically the master equation and the first-passage problem. We find that the stationary probability distribution obeys the detailed balance and is governed by the {\it free energy}. We find that the characteristic lifetime of a cluster diverges algebraically with exponent 1/3 at the limit of stability.Comment: 5pages, 4 figures include

Observation of inhomogeneous domain nucleation in epitaxial Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 capacitors

We investigated domain nucleation process in epitaxial Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 capacitors under a modified piezoresponse force microscope. We obtained domain evolution images during polarization switching process and observed that domain nucleation occurs at particular sites. This inhomogeneous nucleation process should play an important role in an early stage of switching and under a high electric field. We found that the number of nuclei is linearly proportional to log(switching time), suggesting a broad distribution of activation energies for nucleation. The nucleation sites for a positive bias differ from those for a negative bias, indicating that most nucleation sites are located at ferroelectric/electrode interfaces

Dynamical surface structures in multi-particle-correlated surface growths

We investigate the scaling properties of the interface fluctuation width for the $Q$-mer and $Q$-particle-correlated deposition-evaporation models. These models are constrained with a global conservation law that the particle number at each height is conserved modulo $Q$. In equilibrium, the stationary roughness is anomalous but universal with roughness exponent $\alpha=1/3$, while the early time evolution shows nonuniversal behavior with growth exponent $\beta$ varying with models and $Q$. Nonequilibrium surfaces display diverse growing/stationary behavior. The $Q$-mer model shows a faceted structure, while the $Q$-particle-correlated model a macroscopically grooved structure.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, revte

Frictional Drag between Two Dilute Two-Dimensional Hole Layers

We report drag measurements on dilute double layer two-dimensional hole systems in the regime of r_s=19~39. We observed a strong enhancement of the drag over the simple Boltzmann calculations of Coulomb interaction, and deviations from the T^2 dependence which cannot be explained by phonon-mediated, plasmon-enhanced, or disorder-related processes. We suggest that this deviation results from interaction effects in the dilute regime.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev. Lett. Added single layer transport dat