Xia Xiangao, Che Huizheng, Shi Hongrong, Chen Hongbin, Zhang Xiaoye, Wang Pucai, Goloub Phillipe, Holben Brent
LAGEO, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China.
Atmos Res. 2021 Feb;249:105286. doi: 10.1016/j.atmosres.2020.105286. Epub 2020 Sep 26.
Aerosol is a critical trace component of the atmosphere. Many processes in the Earth's climate system are intimately related to aerosols via their direct and indirect radiative effects. Aerosol effects are not limited to these climatic aspects, however. They are also closely related to human health, photosynthesis, new energy, etc., which makes aerosol a central focus in many research fields. A fundamental requirement for improving our understanding of the diverse aerosol effects is to accumulate high-quality aerosol data by various measurement techniques. Sunphotometer remote sensing is one of the techniques that has been playing an increasingly important role in characterizing aerosols across the world. Much progress has been made on this aspect in China during the past decade, which is the work reviewed in this paper. Three sunphotometer networks have been established to provide high-quality observations of long-term aerosol optical properties across the country. Using this valuable dataset, our understanding of spatiotemporal variability and long-term trends of aerosol optical properties has been much improved. The radiative effects of aerosols both at the bottom and at the top of the atmosphere are comprehensively assessed. Substantial warming of the atmosphere by aerosol absorption is revealed. The long-range transport of dust from the Taklimakan Desert in Northwest China and anthropogenic aerosols from South Asia to the Tibetan Plateau is characterized based on ground-based and satellite remote sensing as well as model simulations. Effective methods to estimate chemical compositions from sunphotometer aerosol products are developed. Dozens of satellite and model aerosol products are validated, shedding new light on how to improve these products. These advances improve our understanding of the critical role played by aerosols in both the climate and environment. Finally, a perspective on future research is presented.
气溶胶是大气中的一种关键痕量成分。地球气候系统中的许多过程通过其直接和间接的辐射效应与气溶胶密切相关。然而，气溶胶的影响并不局限于这些气候方面。它们还与人类健康、光合作用、新能源等密切相关，这使得气溶胶成为许多研究领域的核心焦点。提高我们对气溶胶多样效应理解的一个基本要求是通过各种测量技术积累高质量的气溶胶数据。太阳光度计遥感是在全球气溶胶特征描述中发挥着越来越重要作用的技术之一。在过去十年中，中国在这方面取得了很大进展，本文对此工作进行了综述。已建立了三个太阳光度计网络，以提供全国范围内长期气溶胶光学特性的高质量观测数据。利用这一宝贵数据集，我们对气溶胶光学特性的时空变异性和长期趋势的理解有了很大提高。全面评估了气溶胶在大气底层和顶层的辐射效应。揭示了气溶胶吸收导致的大气显著变暖。基于地基和卫星遥感以及模型模拟，对中国西北部塔克拉玛干沙漠的沙尘和来自南亚的人为气溶胶向青藏高原的远距离传输进行了特征描述。开发了从太阳光度计气溶胶产品估算化学成分的有效方法。对数十种卫星和模型气溶胶产品进行了验证，为如何改进这些产品提供了新的思路。这些进展提高了我们对气溶胶在气候和环境中所起关键作用的理解。最后，对未来研究提出了展望。
