Comparison of aerosol size distributions measured at ground level and calculated from inversion of solar radiances

Ground-based sunphotometry measurements can be used to investigate atmospheric aerosol optical properties, such as the volume size distribution, an important parameter in the study of the effect of aerosol on atmospheric processes. Most inversion algorithms assume constant aerosol optical characteristics over the whole air column. In this work we present observational evidence of the limitations of this simplifying assumption in cases where the aerosol vertical structure is highly inhomogeneous. During the field campaign VELETA 2002, carried out in Granada (Spain), a quite complete characterization of the atmospheric aerosol was obtained by simultaneously measuring the columnar aerosol char…