Characteristics of aerosol properties of haze and yellow sand examined from SKYNET measurements over east China sea

In this study, characteristics of atmospheric phenomena such as haze and yellow sand (Kosa) events were investigated in terms of aerosols by using sky radiometers, Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), and optical particle counter (OPC) observations at Fukue-jima and Amami-Oshima Islands from 2003 to 2004. As a result of the data analyses, we determined that aerosol properties such as loading, light absorptivity, particle size, non-sphericity, and vertical distribution showed specific features both in the atmospheric column and near the surface, depending on the atmospheric phenomena compared with normal atmospheric conditions. A specific case was clearly confirmed: the influence of limited light absorptivity dominated even during a Kosa event. In this study, it was confirmed that even if each ground-based instrument observed the phenomena with different ranges for the atmospheric column, lower layer, and surface, the retrieved aerosol properties were consistent. We demonstrated that the combined use of state-of-the-art instrumentation to detect aerosols is useful for quantitatively characterizing the atmospheric phenomena.