Aerosol load characterization over South–East Italy for one year of AERONET sun-photometer measurements

Daily averaged retrievals of AERONET sun photometer measurements from March 2003 to March 2004 are used to provide preliminary results on the characterization of aerosol properties and changes over south–east Italy (40°20′N, 18°6′E). It is shown that aerosol optical and microphysical properties and the dominating aerosol types depend on seasons. Aerosol-parameter frequency distributions reveal the presence of individual modes that lead to the assumption that moderately absorbing urban–industrial and marine-polluted aerosols dominate in spring–summer and autumn–winter, respectively. It is shown that aerosol optical depths (AODs), single scattering albedos (SSAs), and Angstrom coefficients (Å) of urban–industrial (spring–summer) aerosols are characterized by lognormal distributions with peak values of 0.20±0.03, 0.94±0.01, and 1.58±0.03, respectively. On the contrary AOD, SSA and Å values of maritime-polluted (autumn–winter) aerosols are characterized by lognormal distributions with peak values of 0.049±0.008, 0.974±0.003, and 0.7±0.1, respectively. It is also shown that the frequency distribution of real n and imaginary k refractive indices permits inference of the dominant aerosol constituents: sea-salt, water soluble, soot, and mineral particles. y, it is shown that dust outbreaks do not significantly affect the seasonal evolution of aerosol parameters, and that sunphotometry retrievals along dust events are in satisfactory accord with experimental findings indicating that moderately-absorbing (0.005≤k≤0.05) dust particles with a high content of illite are mainly advected over the Mediterranean basin during Sahara dust storms.