Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net 1867-8610 2 4 2009 10.5194/amtd-2-1725-2009 http://www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/2/1725/2009/ http://www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/2/1725/2009/amtd-2-1725-2009.html http://www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/2/1725/2009/amtd-2-1725-2009.pdf 1725 1770 2009-07-28 Minimizing light absorption measurement artifacts of the Aethalometer: evaluation of five correction algorithms M. Collaud Coen E. Weingartner A. Apituley D. Ceburnis H. Flentje J. S. Henzing S. G. Jennings M. Moerman A. Petzold R. Schmidhauser O. Schmid U. Baltensperger MeteoSwiss, Aerological Station, Les Invuardes, 1530 Payerne, Switzerland Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands School of Physics/Environmental Change Institute, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), Meteorologisches Observatorium (MOHP), Albin-Schwaiger-Weg 10, 82383 Hohenpeissenberg, Germany Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, TNO, 80015 Utrecht, The Netherlands Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, 82234 Wessling, Germany Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Institute of Lung Biology and Disease, 85758 Neuherberg/Munich, Germany Missouri University of Science and Technology, Center of Excellence for Aerospace Particulate Emissions Reduction Research, Rolla, MO 65409, USA formerly at Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Biogeochemistry Department, 55020 Mainz, Germany The aerosol light absorption coefficient is an essential parameter involved in atmospheric radiation budget calculations. The Aethalometer (AE) has the great advantage of measuring the aerosol light absorption coefficient at several wavelengths, but the derived absorption coefficients are systematically too high when compared to reference methods. Up to now, four different correction algorithms of the AE absorption coefficients have been proposed by several authors. A new correction scheme based on these previously published methods has been developed, which accounts for the optical properties of the aerosol particles embedded in the filter. All the corrections have been tested on six datasets representing different aerosol types and loadings and include multi-wavelength AE and white-light AE. All the corrections have also been evaluated through comparison with a Multi-Angle Absorption Photometer (MAAP) for four datasets lasting between 6 months and five years. The modification of the wavelength dependence by the different corrections is analyzed in detail. 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