Columnar aerosol properties retrieved from sun-sky radiometer measurements in western Siberia during the winter season

Abstract

Occupied a vast area, Siberia is marked by diverse climate and pronounced seasonal cycle. For regional and global climate models it is important to account for seasonal features of atmospheric aerosol. The paper briefly describes an algorithm "Sun-Sky Measurements for Aerosol ReTrieval" (SSMART, Version 1.1) for recovering aerosol optical (single scattering albedo, asymmetry factor of scattering phase function) and microphysical (particle size distribution, complex refractive index) characteristics. The aerosol properties retrieved using the SSMART algorithm from measurements of the spectral extinction and almucantar sky radiance carried out at Tomsk AERONET station in winter are presented. The results of comparison with the data presented on the AERONET website at Level 1.5 are discussed. Both individual and averaged over an extended set of atmospheric situations solutions of the inverse problem are analyzed. The seasonal (summer and winter) variability of aerosol properties is studied.