Mace Head Atmospheric Research Station — characterization of aerosol radiative parameters

A fairly concise description and a short history of the Mace Head atmospheric research station, at 53°N, 10°W, on the west coast of Ireland is reported. The relatively high latitude site is representative of background marine air in the Northern Atlantic on the western periphery of Europe. The site is ideally located to measure the prevailing (about 52% of the time) westerly-southwesterly air from the Atlantic, as well as polluted air under anticyclonic conditions from sources east of the site within Ireland, from the UK and from mainland Europe. Three years of aerosol radiative data, over a period from January 2000 to December 2002, are indicative of the medium to longterm measurement programme at the site. These include aerosol scattering coefficient, aerosol absorption coefficient, aerosol optical depth and single scattering albedo, supported by meteorological and air mass trajectory input. Variability in aerosol parameters are shown to be dependent on air mass origin, season and meteorological conditions. Measurements indicate that the dominant contribution to aerosol optical depth is due to scattering, with single scattering albedo in the range 0.941 to 0.997. Measured aerosol optical depth for marine air over the 3 year period varies between 0.03 and 0.38 with a mean value of 0.11 and standard deviation of +/-0.06. These values are in fair agreement with other data for the North Atlantic region.