A. Nemuc, L. Belegante, R. Radulescu, One year of sunphotometer measurements in Romania, Romanian Journal of Physics, 56/3-4 (2011) 550-562.

Title: One year of sunphotometer measurements in Romania

Abstract: Multi-wavelength sunphotometry provides a quantitative index that relates to total suspended aerosol in the atmospheric air column above the observer. In addition, it has the capability of delineating characteristic features of different air masses and the aerosol sources that affect them, when used in conjunction with other aerosol and meteorological measurements. Daily averaged retrievals of AERONET(AErosol RObotic NETwork) sun photometer measurements from July 2007 to June 2008 are used to provide preliminary results on the characterization of aerosol properties and changes over south–east Romania, near Bucharest, at Magurele (44.35N, 25.05E). It is shown that aerosol optical and microphysical properties and the dominating aerosol types are influenced by the long range transport of Saharan dust and biomass burning. Aerosol-parameter frequency distributions reveal the presence of individual modes that lead to the assumption that moderately absorbing urban– industrial aerosols are usually characterizing the atmosphere above Magurele. The reported data agree well with known aerosol information retrieved from climatology of 10 years of observations of other AERONET sites.

Key words: remote sensing, sun photometer, aerosols, AOD, AERONET