Articles | Volume 26, issue 15
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-10767-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-10767-2026
Research article
 | 
03 Aug 2026
Research article |  | 03 Aug 2026

Long-term trends in reconstructed atmospheric aerosol load based on large-scale sunshine duration records since 1900

William Wandji Nyamsi, Ville Leinonen, Antti Lipponen, Else van den Besselaar, Santtu Mikkonen, Arturo Sanchez-Lorenzo, Martin Wild, Doris Folini, Tero Mielonen, Harri Kokkola, Antti Kukkurainen, Neus Sabater, Rei Kudo, Ben Liley, Raghav Srinivasan, Bruce W. Forgan, Alexandru Dumitrescu, Grzegorz Urban, Michał K. Kowalewski, Márcia Akemi Yamasoe, Nilton Évora do Rosário, Dimitra Founda, Stelios Kazadzis, Veronica Manara, Derbetini A. Vondou, Christian Gueymard, Anders V. Lindfors, Atsumu Ohmura, and Antti Arola

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Cited articles

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Short summary
Worldwide reconstructed historical aerosol load reveals that during the period of:

  • 1900–1959: the atmosphere became cleaner in most European cities;
  • 1960–1985: anthropogenic aerosols were responsible for the dimming phenomenon in Europe. AOD increased over Southeast Brazil and decreased noticeably over Japan while a small negative trend was found over Oceania;
  • 1986–2015: generally, the atmosphere has become much cleaner everywhere after the reversal trend around 1980s mainly observed in Europe.
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