Vertical distribution of optical and micro-physical properties of ambient aerosols during dry haze periods in Shanghai

Based on the lidar data obtained from CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations) satellite of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), the vertical distributions of aerosols are revealed during dry haze periods in the Shanghai vicinity by analyzing the optical and micro-physical parameters including total attenuated backscatter coefficient (TABC), volume depolarization ratio (VDR) and total attenuated color ratio (TACR). The preliminary conclusion is that when dry haze occurs in the Shanghai vicinity, smoke and maritime aerosols are the major types in summer and autumn and aerosols might be affected by long-distance transport of dust in spring; lower troposphere below 2 km is the layer polluted most severely and aerosol scattering with relatively irregular shape is much stronger than that of aerosols with relatively regular shape within 2–10 km in middle and upper troposphere; relatively large aerosols appear more frequently in lower (0–2 km) and middle troposphere (2–6 km) than those in upper troposphere (6–10 km). In addition, HYSPLIT (Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) model is applied to analyze the aerosol sources during two typical episodes. The results indicate that the middle and upper troposphere in the Shanghai vicinity are affected by the long-distance transport of dusts from northwest of China or other upstream regions. The high aerosol concentrations in the Shanghai vicinity are mainly caused not only by local human activities but also by the long-distance transport from other places.