Influence of urban aerosol pollution to radiative forcing

Daily PM10 concentrations of samples collected at two sites, urban and rural from Romania have been used to estimate the aerosol direct radiative forcing. Using OPAC (Optical Properties of Aerosols and Cloud) model we determined the single scattering albedo, the aerosol optical depth and aerosol up-scatter fraction, aerosol's properties needed to estimate the magnitude and sign of direct aerosol radiative forcing. The surface albedo was assumed 0.2 for the urban site and 0.06 for the rural site for all wavelengths. For aerosol scale height we used 1km in winter and 2 km in the summer to calculate the optical depth of the boundary layer. Statistical analysis of the PM10 concentration for both sites show clear seasonal cycle with maxima in the winter. As a consequence of urban atmospheric pollution the radiative forcing for urban site appears strongly modified in comparison with rural site.