The aim of the present work is a detailed analysis of aerosol columnar optical depth as a tool to determine near‐surface aerosol extinction in Reno, Nevada, USA, during the summer of 2012. Ground and columnar aerosol optical properties were obtained by use of in situ Photoacoustic and Integrated Nephelometer and Cimel CE‐318 Sun photometer instruments, respectively. Both techniques showed that seasonal weather changes and fire plumes had enormous influence on local aerosol optics. The apparent optical height followed the shape but not magnitude of the development of the convective boundary layer when fire conditions were not present. Back trajectory analysis demonstrated that a local flow known as the Washoe Zephyr circulation often induced aerosol transport from Northern California over the Sierra Nevada Mountains that increased the aerosol optical depth at 500 nm during afternoons when compared with mornings. Aerosol fine mode fraction indicated that afternoon aerosols in June and July and fire plumes in August were dominated by submicron particles, suggesting upwind urban plume biogenically enhanced evolution toward substantial secondary aerosol formation. This fine particle optical depth was inferred to be beyond the surface, thereby complicating use of remote sensing measurements for near‐ground aerosol extinction measurements. It is likely that coarse mode depletes fine mode aerosol near the surface by coagulation and condensation of precursor gases.

Bright surfaces across the western U.S. lead to uncertainties in satellite derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) where AOD is typically overestimated. With this in mind, a compact and portable instrument was developed to measure surface albedo on an unmanned aircraft system (UAS). This spectral albedometer uses two Hamamatsu micro-spectrometers (range: 340–780 nm) for measuring incident and reflected solar radiation at the surface. The instrument was deployed on 5 October 2017 in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert (BRD) to investigate a region of known high surface reflectance for comparison with albedo products from satellites. It was found that satellite retrievals underestimate surface reflectance compared to the UAS mounted albedometer. To highlight the importance of surface reflectance on the AOD from satellite retrieval algorithms, a 1-D radiative transfer model was used. The simple model was used to determine the sensitivity of AOD with respect to the change in albedo and indicates a large sensitivity of AOD retrievals to surface reflectance for certain combinations of surface albedo and aerosol optical properties. This demonstrates the need to increase the number of surface albedo measurements and an intensive evaluation of albedo satellite retrievals to improve satellite-derived AOD. The portable instrument is suitable for other applications as well.