The regional distribution characteristics of aerosol optical depth over the Tibetan Plateau

Xu, C.; Ma, Y. M.; You, C.; Zhu, Z. K.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-12065-2015

Articles | Volume 15, issue 20

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-12065-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Special issue:

Study of ozone, aerosols and radiation over the Tibetan Plateau...

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-12065-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 20

Research article

|

30 Oct 2015

Research article |

| 30 Oct 2015

The regional distribution characteristics of aerosol optical depth over the Tibetan Plateau

C. Xu, Y. M. Ma, C. You, and Z. K. Zhu

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Final revised paper (published on 30 Oct 2015)
Preprint (discussion started on 11 Jun 2015)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC C4768: 'Review of acp-2015-341', Anonymous Referee #1, 11 Jul 2015
- AC C6466: 'Authors’ response to Referee#1', Chao Xu, 01 Sep 2015
RC C5112: 'some aspects should be improved', Anonymous Referee #2, 21 Jul 2015
- AC C6467: 'Authors’ response to Referee#2', Chao Xu, 01 Sep 2015

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Chao Xu on behalf of the Authors (01 Sep 2015) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (28 Sep 2015) by Hang Su

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (14 Oct 2015)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Review of the revised submission of
“The regional distribution characteristics of aerosol optical depth over the Tibetan Plateau”
by C. Xu et al.

The revised manuscript has been substantially improved in comparison to the previous versions. I conclude that the authors addressed most of my, and other reviewers’ comments, adequately and satisfactorily. At the moment I only have a few minor issues with the presented manuscript that I think should be addressed before the publication. To make things easier I also suggest possible alterations, which the authors are free to use.

1. Page 7, lines 5-11: The authors cite the agreement between CALIOP and AERONET as percentage numbers. What do these numbers indicate? Please clarify.

2. Page 7, line 23: ERA-Interim horizontal resolution is stated, but what is the vertical resolution? Please provide the number of vertical layers and possibly an approximate vertical spacing at ~4-5 km.

3. Page 10, line 24: “a hot topic” is not professional. Substitute with “is currently a widely studied topic”.

4. Page 14, lines 5-6: Why are there quote marks here?

5. Page 14, line 29: Remove the word “apparently”. The whole sentence could read: The southern edge of the TP is much higher than the northern edge, therefore the transport of aerosols from the north is seems easier than from the south.

6. Page 15, lines 9-13: Here the authors jump to discussing southerly advection without mentioning it explicitly. I suggest the following correction: These mountains possibly act as a natural barrier for aerosols passing across the southern edge, and curb the spread of pollution further northward to the main body of the TP.

7. Page 15, lines 19-21: I recommend removing these two sentences. They are too speculative and not substantiated.

8. Page 15, lines 22-23 and Figures 8 and 9: Wind vectors and arrows are difficult to read. Possibly reducing the number of arrows and making them longer would help?

9. Page 16, line 5: Remove the word “primarily”.

10. Page 17, lines 9-13: This part of text starting with “Although there are…” and ending with “…during autumn and winter seasons.” should be removed. If the authors wish to keep references to Tripathi et al. 2005 and Nair et al. 2007, they should incorporate them somewhere at the end of line 5, page 17.

11. Page 17, lines 16-26: This part of text should be removed. It is repetitive and does not contribute anything new to the manuscript.

12. Page 18, lines 17-20: Suggested improvement to this sentence: Dust layer over the TP can reach up to the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere in spring (altitudes of ~11-12 km), while the altitude of dust layer is much lower in other seasons.

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ED: Reconsider after minor revisions (Editor review) (15 Oct 2015) by Hang Su

AR by Chao Xu on behalf of the Authors (17 Oct 2015) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (23 Oct 2015) by Hang Su

AR by Chao Xu on behalf of the Authors (23 Oct 2015) Author's response Manuscript

Short summary

Different monthly variation patterns of aerosol optical depth are observed over the southern and northern Tibetan Plateau (TP). A dividing line of higher dust occurrence in the northern TP and lower dust occurrence in the southern TP can be observed clearly at an altitude of 6-8km. The different seasonal variation patterns between the northern and southern TP are due to many factors, including the emission sources, high-altitude terrain and atmospheric circulation.