The column‐integrated optical properties of aerosol in the central eastern region of Asia and midtropical Pacific were investigated based on Sun/sky radiometer measurements made at Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sites in these regions. Characterization of aerosol properties in the Asian region is important due to the rapid growth of both population and economic activity, with associated increases in fossil fuel combustion, and the possible regional and global climatic impacts of related aerosol emissions. Multiyear monitoring over the complete annual cycle at sites in China, Mongolia, South Korea, and Japan suggest spring and/or summer maximum in aerosol optical depth (τ_a) and a winter minimum; however, more monitoring is needed to establish accurate climatologies. The annual cycle of Angstrom wavelength exponent (α) showed a springtime minimum associated with dust storm activity; however, the monthly mean α_440–870 was >0.8 even for the peak dust season at eastern Asian sites suggesting that fine mode pollution aerosol emitted from population centers in eastern Asia dominates the monthly aerosol optical influence even in spring as pollution aerosol mixes with coarse mode dust originating in western source regions. Aerosol optical depth peaks in spring in the tropical mid‐Pacific Ocean associated with seasonal shifts in atmospheric transport from Asia, and ∼35% of the springtime τ_a500 enhancement occurs at altitudes above 3.4 km. For predominately fine mode aerosol pollution cases, the average midvisible (∼550 nm) single scattering albedo (ω₀) at two continental urban sites in China averaged ∼0.89, while it was significantly higher, ∼0.93, at two relatively rural coastal sites in South Korea and Japan. Differences in fine mode absorption between these regions may result from a combination of factors including aerosol aging during transport, relative humidity differences, sea salt at coastal sites, and fuel type and combustion differences in the two regions. For cases where τ_a was predominately coarse mode dust aerosol in the spring of 2001, the absorption was greater in eastern Asia compared to the source regions, with ω₀ at Dunhuang, China (near to the major Taklamakan dust source), ∼0.04 higher than at Beijing at all wavelengths, and Anmyon, South Korea, showing an intermediate level of absorption. Possible reasons for differences in dust absorption magnitude include interactions between dust and fine mode pollution aerosol and also variability of dust optical properties from different source regions in China and Mongolia.

A mesoscale network of 14 AERONET Sun photometers was established in the UAE and adjacent Arabian Gulf from August through September 2004 as a component of the United Arab Emirates Unified Aerosol Experiment (UAE²). These measurements allowed for spatial, temporal and spectral characterization of the complex aerosol mixtures present in this environment where coarse mode desert dust aerosols often mix with fine mode pollution aerosols largely produced by the petroleum industry. Aerosol loading was relatively high with 2‐month averages of aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 500 nm (τ_a500) ranging from 0.40 to 0.53. A higher fine mode fraction of AOD was observed over Arabian Gulf island sites with Angstrom exponent at 440–870 nm (α_440–870) of 0.77 as compared to an average of 0.64 over coastal sites and 0.50–0.57 at inland desert sites. During pollution events with α_440–870 > 1 the retrieved fine mode radius was larger over an island site than a desert site probably because of hygroscopic growth over the humid marine environment. For these same pollution cases, single scattering albedo (ω_o) at all wavelengths was ∼0.03 higher (less absorption) over the marine environment than over the desert, also consistent with aerosol humidification growth. At an inland desert location, the ω_o at 440 nm remained relatively constant as Angstrom exponent varied since the fine mode pollution and coarse mode dust were both strong absorbers at short wavelengths. However, at longer wavelengths (675–1020 nm) the dust was much less absorbing than the pollution resulting in dynamic ω_o as a function of α_440–870.

We present the results of a field experiment in which the nearly complete bidirectional reflectance distribution function of Alaskan arctic tundra sites early in the growing season is measured by the PARABOLA instrument. The spectral hemispheric reflectances were computed by angular integration of these measurements for three wavebands: red (650-670nm), near-infrared (810-840nm) and shortwave infrared (1620-1690 nm). Total albedo was then estimated by weighting the spectral hemispheric reflectances by the fraction of total solar irradiance in three broadband spectral regions (300-700, 700-1300 and 1300-4000nm) and representing each spectral region by the narrowband PARABOLA measurements. These calculations resulted in albedo estimates with a mean relative error of 15.7 per cent as compared to pyranometer measured albedo. Since vegetation reflectance varies significantly over each of the three broadband regions, additional reflectance weighting factors were computed from a combination of high spectral resolution canopy reflectance data and corresponding computed spectral solar irradiance. This additional reflectance weighting resulted in a reduction in the mean relative error to 7.5 per cent relative to pyranometer measured albedo. It is noted that the three spectral bands of the PARABOLA instrument data reported here are similar to those of the spectral wavebands planned for future Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensors on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites. Therefore the results and techniques presented here may be useful for future global albedo estimation utilizing AVHRR sensors. The analysis presented here may also be applied to albedo estimation from satellite sensors with higher spectral resolution and more complete spectral coverage, such as the future orbiting MODIS sensor, in which the errors of spectral reflectance weighting will be reduced considerably due to a more complete sampling of the reflected spectrum.