Columnar and surface aerosol load over the Iberian Peninsula establishing annual cycles, trends, and relationships in five geographical sectors

Abstract The study of atmospheric aerosol load over the Iberian Peninsula (IP) under a climatological perspective is accomplished by means of PM 10 and AOD 440 nm measurements from EMEP and AERONET networks, respectively, in the period 2000–2013. The PM 10 annual cycles in five Iberian sectors show a main maximum in summer and a secondary maximum in spring, which is only observed in the southern area for the AOD climatology. The characteristics of PM 10 –AOD annual cycles of each geographical sector are explained by the different climatology of the air mass origins and their apportioning. The two magnitudes are correlated with a factor ranging between 20 and 90 depending on the sector. The temporal evolution of the aerosol load has shown a notable decrease in the IP since the 1980s. Statistically significant trends are obtained in the Northeastern sector with a reduction of 26% (period 1985–2000) for the total suspended particles, which continues for the PM 10 data with a value of 35% per decade (2001–2013), and also in the whole column, 61% per decade in the AOD 440 nm (2004–2013).