Abstract. The Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) has provided highly accurate, ground-truth measurements of the aerosol optical depth (AOD) using Cimel Electronique Sun–sky radiometers for more than 25 years. In Version 2 (V2) of the AERONET database, the near-real-time AOD was semiautomatically quality controlled utilizing mainly cloud-screening methodology, while additional AOD data contaminated by clouds or affected by instrument anomalies were removed manually before attaining quality-assured status (Level 2.0). The large growth in the number of AERONET sites over the past 25 years resulted in significant burden to the manual quality control of millions of measurements in a consistent manner. The AERONET Version 3 (V3) algorithm provides fully automatic cloud screening and instrument anomaly quality controls. All of these new algorithm updates apply to near-real-time data as well as post-field-deployment processed data, and AERONET reprocessed the database in 2018. A full algorithm redevelopment provided the opportunity to improve data inputs and corrections such as unique filter-specific temperature characterizations for all visible and near-infrared wavelengths, updated gaseous and water vapor absorption coefficients, and ancillary data sets. The Level 2.0 AOD quality-assured data set is now available within a month after post-field calibration, reducing the lag time from up to several months. Near-real-time estimated uncertainty is determined using data qualified as V3 Level 2.0 AOD and considering the difference between the AOD computed with the pre-field calibration and AOD computed with pre-field and post-field calibration. This assessment provides a near-real-time uncertainty estimate for which average differences of AOD suggest a +0.02 bias and one sigma uncertainty of 0.02, spectrally, but the bias and uncertainty can be significantly larger for specific instrument deployments. Long-term monthly averages analyzed for the entire V3 and V2 databases produced average differences (V3–V2) of +0.002 with a ±0.02 SD (standard deviation), yet monthly averages calculated using time-matched observations in both databases were analyzed to compute an average difference of −0.002 with a ±0.004 SD. The high statistical agreement in multiyear monthly averaged AOD validates the advanced automatic data quality control algorithms and suggests that migrating research to the V3 database will corroborate most V2 research conclusions and likely lead to more accurate results in some cases.

[1] Aerosol mixtures composed of coarse mode desert dust combined with fine mode combustion generated aerosols (from fossil fuel and biomass burning sources) were investigated at three locations that are in and/or downwind of major global aerosol emission source regions. Multiyear monitoring data at Aerosol Robotic Network sites in Beijing (central eastern China), Kanpur (Indo-Gangetic Plain, northern India), and Ilorin (Nigeria, Sudanian zone of West Africa) were utilized to study the climatological characteristics of aerosol optical properties. Multiyear climatological averages of spectral single scattering albedo (SSA) versus fine mode fraction (FMF) of aerosol optical depth at 675 nm at all three sites exhibited relatively linear trends up to ∼50% FMF. This suggests the possibility that external linear mixing of both fine and coarse mode components (weighted by FMF) dominates the SSA variation, where the SSA of each component remains relatively constant for this range of FMF only. However, it is likely that a combination of other factors is also involved in determining the dynamics of SSA as a function of FMF, such as fine mode particles adhering to coarse mode dust. The spectral variation of the climatological averaged aerosol absorption optical depth (AAOD) was nearly linear in logarithmic coordinates over the wavelength range of 440-870 nm for both the Kanpur and Ilorin sites. However, at two sites in China (Beijing and Xianghe), a distinct nonlinearity in spectral AAOD in logarithmic space was observed, suggesting the possibility of anomalously strong absorption in coarse mode aerosols increasing the 870 nm AAOD.Citation: Eck, T. F., et al. (2010), Climatological aspects of the optical properties of fine/coarse mode aerosol mixtures,

[1] The column-integrated optical properties of aerosol in the central eastern region of Asia and midtropical Pacific were investigated based on Sun/sky radiometer measurements made at Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sites in these regions. Characterization of aerosol properties in the Asian region is important due to the rapid growth of both population and economic activity, with associated increases in fossil fuel combustion, and the possible regional and global climatic impacts of related aerosol emissions. Multiyear monitoring over the complete annual cycle at sites in China, Mongolia, South Korea, and Japan suggest spring and/or summer maximum in aerosol optical depth (t a ) and a winter minimum; however, more monitoring is needed to establish accurate climatologies. The annual cycle of Angstrom wavelength exponent (a) showed a springtime minimum associated with dust storm activity; however, the monthly mean a 440 -870 was >0.8 even for the peak dust season at eastern Asian sites suggesting that fine mode pollution aerosol emitted from population centers in eastern Asia dominates the monthly aerosol optical influence even in spring as pollution aerosol mixes with coarse mode dust originating in western source regions. Aerosol optical depth peaks in spring in the tropical mid-Pacific Ocean associated with seasonal shifts in atmospheric transport from Asia, and $35% of the springtime t a500 enhancement occurs at altitudes above 3.4 km. For predominately fine mode aerosol pollution cases, the average midvisible ($550 nm) single scattering albedo (w 0 ) at two continental urban sites in China averaged $0.89, while it was significantly higher, $0.93, at two relatively rural coastal sites in South Korea and Japan. Differences in fine mode absorption between these regions may result from a combination of factors including aerosol aging during transport, relative humidity differences, sea salt at coastal sites, and fuel type and combustion differences in the two regions. For cases where t a was predominately coarse mode dust aerosol in the spring of 2001, the absorption was greater in eastern Asia compared to the source regions, with w 0 at Dunhuang, China (near to the major Taklamakan dust source), $0.04 higher than at Beijing at all wavelengths, and Anmyon, South Korea, showing an intermediate level of absorption. Possible reasons for differences in dust absorption magnitude include interactions between dust and fine mode pollution aerosol and also variability of dust optical properties from different source regions in China and Mongolia.