@misc{10481/63427, year = {2020}, month = {8}, url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10481/63427}, abstract = {Aerosol particles are essential constituents of the Earth’s atmosphere, impacting the earth radiation balance directly by scattering and absorbing solar radiation, and indirectly by acting as cloud condensation nuclei. In contrast to most greenhouse gases, aerosol particles have short atmospheric residence times, resulting in a highly heterogeneous distribution in space and time. There is a clear need to document this variability at regional scale through observations involving, in particular, the in situ near-surface segment of the atmospheric observation system. This paper will provide the widest effort so far to document variability of climate-relevant in situ aerosol properties (namely wavelength dependent particle light scattering and absorption coefficients, particle number concentration and particle number size distribution) from all sites connected to the Global Atmosphere Watch network. High-quality data from almost 90 stations worldwide have been collected and controlled for quality and are reported for a reference year in 2017, providing a very extended and robust view of the variability of these variables worldwide. The range of variability observed worldwide for light scattering and absorption coefficients, single-scattering albedo, and particle number concentration are presented together with preliminary information on their long-term trends and comparison with model simulation for the different stations. The scope of the present paper is also to provide the necessary suite of information, including data provision procedures, quality control and analysis, data policy, and usage of the ground-based aerosol measurement network. It delivers to users of the World Data Centre on Aerosol, the required confidence in data products in the form of a fully characterized value chain, including uncertainty estimation and requirements for contributing to the global climate monitoring system.}, organization = {European Commission Joint Research Centre 654109}, organization = {European ERDF funds through different Spanish R&D projects of the Spanish Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad}, organization = {NorthWest University}, organization = {University of Helsinki}, organization = {Academy of Finland 272041}, organization = {Academy of Finland project Greenhouse gas 269095 296302}, organization = {Korea Meteorological Administration Research and Development Program "Development of Monitoring and Analysis Techniques for Atmospheric Composition in Korea KMA2018-00522}, organization = {National Research Foundation of Korea 2017R1D1A1B06032548}, organization = {Korea Meteorological Administration Research and Development Program KMI2018-01111}, organization = {Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration}, organization = {Ministry of Research, France}, organization = {French Ministry of the Environment}, organization = {United States Environmental Protection Agency}, organization = {MeteoSwiss (GAW-CH aerosol monitoring programme)}, organization = {Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI)}, organization = {Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of CR within National Sustainability Program I (NPU I) LO1415}, organization = {ERDF "ACTRISCZ RI" CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_013/0001315 CGL2017-85344-R MINECO/AEI/FEDER}, organization = {TIGAS-CM (Madrid Regional Government) Y2018/EMT-5177}, organization = {AIRTECCM (Madrid Regional Government) P2018/EMT4329 REDMAAS2020 RED2018-102594-T CIENCIA}, organization = {Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness}, organization = {European Union (EU) CGL2016-78594-R}, organization = {Generalitat de Catalunya AGAUR 2017 SGR41}, organization = {National Institute for Aerospace Technology}, organization = {Ministerio Espanol de Economia, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO) MIS 5021516}, organization = {Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation}, organization = {NSRF}, organization = {Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR)}, organization = {Norwegian Environment Agency}, organization = {Swedish FORMAS; Swedish Research Council (VR)}, organization = {Magnus Bergvall foundation}, organization = {Marta och Erik Holmberg foundation}, organization = {Swedish EPA}, publisher = {Copernicus Publications; European Geosciences Union}, title = {A global analysis of climate-relevant aerosol properties retrieved from the network of Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) near-surface observatories}, doi = {10.5194/amt-13-4353-2020}, author = {Laj, Paolo and Alados Arboledas, Lucas and Titos Vela, Gloria}, }