Simultaneous Aerosol Size Distribution and Turbidity Measurements over St. Louis during METROMEX 1975

Abstract

An experiment designed to measure aerosol size distributions and turbidity simultaneously over a metropolitan area is described. The particle volume size distributions measured in the city plume are found to be bimodal, with the total particle volume in the fine or submicron mode decreasing dramatically above the inversion. Aerosol extinction coefficients derived from sunphotometer optical depth measurements at four wavelengths are compared to those calculated from the measured size distributions using Mie theory with several different particle refractive indices. The accuracy of the experimental method for determining the aerosol extinction coefficient prevented any meaningful choice of the real part of particle refractive index between 1.5?1.6 and an imaginary part between 0 and ?0.1i. Improvements to this type of experiment are discussed.