Analysis to Xuzhou aerosol optical characteristicswith ground-based measurements by sun photometer

Atmospheric aerosols are fine particulate matters suspended in atmosphere, and vary in size distribution, geometrical shape, total column content, and chemical composition. The Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) comprised of hundreds of ground-based monitoring stations all over the world aims to measure regularly and continuously the aerosol optical properties, such as aerosol optical depth (AOD) and Angstrom exponent. AERONET has supported the international researches on global, regional and local atmospheric environment issues including aerosol pollution and haze episodes. However, the past researches on China aerosol issues were mainly related with Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Yangtze River delta, and Cheng-Yu plain. It had been much ignored in the Huaihai economic zone, which is also densely populated and economically developed, locates in the north-to-south geographical transition zone of China. An AERONET station was established in 2013 in the Nahu campus of China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT), supported by the China MAESTRO (Mining Area Environment Synergic Observation Proving Ground) program, and a CE318 sun photometer was installed in this station to monitor continuously the characteristics of atmospheric aerosol variations in Xuzhou. The CE318 provides ground measurements on aerosol optical depth (AOD), Angstrom exponent, complex refractive index, single scatter albedo, and some other important aerosol parameters. In this paper, the AERONET CE318 measurements from July 2013 to April 2015 were systematically analyzed to reveal the daily, monthly, and yearly variations of atmospheric aerosols in Xuzhou. Referring to meteorological data including wind speed, relative humidity and total rainy days, the aerosol properties were analyzed with mathematical statistics and K -means cluster methods.