Articles | Volume 16, issue 17
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11219-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11219-2016
Research article
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12 Sep 2016
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 12 Sep 2016

Long-term visibility variation in Athens (1931–2013): a proxy for local and regional atmospheric aerosol loads

Dimitra Founda, Stelios Kazadzis, Nikolaos Mihalopoulos, Evangelos Gerasopoulos, Maria Lianou, and Panagiotis I. Raptis

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Cited articles

Appel, B. R., Tokiwa, Y., Hsu, J., Kothny, E., and Hahn, E.: Visibility as related to atmospheric aerosol constituents, Atmos. Environ., 19, 1525–1534, https://doi.org/10.1016/0004-6981(85)90290-2, 1985.
Bäumer, D., Vogel, B., Versick, S., Rinke, R., Möhler, O., and Schnaiter, M.: Relationship of visibility, aerosol optical thickness and aerosol size distribution in an ageing air mass over South-West Germany, Atmos. Environ., 42, 989–998, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2007.10.017, 2008.
Bond, T. C., Bhardwaj, E., Dong, R., Jogani, R., Jung, S., Roden, C., Streets, D. G., and Trautmann, N. M.: Historical emissions of black and organic carbon aerosol from energy-related combustion, 1850–2000, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 21, GB2018, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006GB002840, 2007.
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Cermak, J., Wild, M., Knutti, R., Mishchenko, M. I., and Heidinger, A. K.: Consistency of global satellite-derived aerosol and cloud data sets with recent brightening observations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L21704, https://doi.org/10.1029/2010GL044632, 2010.
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Short summary
Historical time series are unique sources of information for past climate and atmospheric composition change. The 82-year time series of visibility data collected at the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) was an excellent proxy for the long-term evolution of particulate pollution in the eastern Mediterranean, at times when direct aerosol measurements were missing. Evolution of particulate pollution of both local and regional origin is nicely reflected on visibility records of NOA.
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