Nephelometer derived and directly measured aerosol optical depth of the atmospheric boundary layer

Abstract The aerosol optical depth of the atmospheric boundary layer was determined both from direct solar irradiance measurements and from vertical extrapolation of ground-based nephelometry, during a period with cloudless skies and high aerosol mass loadings in the Netherlands. The vertical profile of the aerosol was obtained from lidar measurements. From humidity controlled nephelometry at the ground and humidity profiles from soundings, the scattering aerosol extinction as a function of height was assessed. Integration of the extinction over the aerosol layer gave the aerosol optical depth of the atmospheric boundary layer. This optical depth at the narrow band of the nephelometer was translated to a spectrally integrated value, assuming an Angstrom wavelength exponent of 1.5, a typical value for The Netherlands. It was found that scattering by the boundary layer aerosol contributed on average 80% to the total atmospheric aerosol optical depth. The uncertainty in this value is estimated to be of the order of 13%. Ammonium nitrate dominated the light scattering. This is an anthropogenic aerosol component. The radiative forcing caused by the light scattering of the anthropogenic aerosol was calculated assuming an upward scattered fraction of 0.3. An average value of − 12 W m −2 was found (with an estimated uncertainty of 20%). This corresponds to an absolute increase in the planetary albedo of 0.03, which is equivalent to a 15% increase in the local planetary albedo of 0.2.