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This study assesses the change in anthropogenic aerosol forcing from the mid-1970s to the mid-2000s. Both decades had similar global-mean anthropogenic aerosol optical depths but substantially different global distributions. For both years, we quantify (i) the forcing spread due to model-internal variability and (ii) the forcing spread among models. Our assessment is based on new ensembles of atmosphere-only simulations with five state-of-the-art Earth system models. Four of these models will be used in the sixth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6; Eyring et al., 2016). Here, the complexity of the anthropogenic aerosol has been reduced in the participating models. In all our simulations, we prescribe the same patterns of the anthropogenic aerosol optical properties and associated effects on the cloud droplet number concentration. We calculate the instantaneous radiative forcing (RF) and the effective radiative forcing (ERF). Their difference defines the net contribution from rapid adjustments. Our simulations show a model spread in ERF from −0.4 to −0.9 W m−2. The standard deviation in annual ERF is 0.3 W m−2, based on 180 individual estimates from each participating model. This result implies that identifying the model spread in ERF due to systematic differences requires averaging over a sufficiently large number of years. Moreover, we find almost identical ERFs for the mid-1970s and mid-2000s for individual models, although there are major model differences in natural aerosols and clouds. The model-ensemble mean ERF is −0.54 W m−2 for the pre-industrial era to the mid-1970s and −0.59 W m−2 for the pre-industrial era to the mid-2000s. Our result suggests that comparing ERF changes between two observable periods rather than absolute magnitudes relative to a poorly constrained pre-industrial state might provide a better test for a model's ability to represent transient climate changes.

Sources of organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) in Xi'an, China, are investigated based on 1-year radiocarbon and stable carbon isotope measurements. The radiocarbon results demonstrate that EC is dominated by fossil sources throughout the year, with a mean contribution of 83 +/- 5% (7 +/- 2 mu gm(-3)). The remaining 17 +/- 5% (1.5 +/- 1 mu gm(-3)) is attributed to biomass burning, with a higher contribution in the winter (similar to 24 %) compared to the summer (similar to 14 %). Stable carbon isotopes of EC (delta C-13(EC)) are enriched in winter (-23.2 +/- 0.4 %) and depleted in summer (-25.9 +/- 0.5 %), indicating the influence of coal combustion in winter and liquid fossil fuel combustion in summer. By combining radiocarbon and stable carbon signatures, relative contributions from coal combustion and liquid fossil fuel combustion are estimated to be 45% (median; 29 %-58 %, interquartile range) and 31% (18 %-46 %) in winter, respectively, whereas in other seasons more than one half of EC is from liquid fossil combustion. In contrast with EC, the contribution of non-fossil sources to OC is much larger, with an annual average of 54 +/- 8% (12 +/- 10 mu gm(-3)). Clear seasonal variations are seen in OC concentrations both from fossil and non-fossil sources, with maxima in winter and minima in summer because of unfavorable meteorological conditions coupled with enhanced fossil and non-fossil activities in winter, mainly biomass burning and domestic coal burning. delta C-13(OC) exhibited similar values to delta C-13(EC), and showed strong correlations (r(2) = 0.90) in summer and autumn, indicating similar source mixtures with EC. In spring, delta C-13(OC) is depleted (1.1 %-2.4 %) compared to delta C-13(EC), indicating the importance of secondary formation of OC (e.g., from volatile organic compound precursors) in addition to primary sources. Modeled mass concentrations and source contributions of primary OC are compared to the measured mass and source contributions. There is strong evidence that both secondary formation and photochemical loss processes influence the final OC concentrations.

We present an automatic aerosol classification method based solely on the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET) intensive optical parameters with the aim of building a network-wide classification tool that could provide near-real-time aerosol typing information. The presented method depends on a supervised learning technique and makes use of the Mahalanobis distance function that relates each unclassified measurement to a predefined aerosol type. As a first step (training phase), a reference dataset is set up consisting of already classified EARLINET data. Using this dataset, we defined 8 aerosol classes: clean continental, polluted continental, dust, mixed dust, polluted dust, mixed marine, smoke, and volcanic ash. The effect of the number of aerosol classes has been explored, as well as the optimal set of intensive parameters to separate different aerosol types. Furthermore, the algorithm is trained with literature particle linear depolarization ratio values. As a second step (testing phase), we apply the method to an already classified EARLINET dataset and analyze the results of the comparison to this classified dataset. The predictive accuracy of the automatic classification varies between 59% (minimum) and 90% (maximum) from 8 to 4 aerosol classes, respectively, when evaluated against pre-classified EARLINET lidar. This indicates the potential use of the automatic classification to all network lidar data. Furthermore, the training of the algorithm with particle linear depolarization values found in the literature further improves the accuracy with values for all the aerosol classes around 80 %. Additionally, the algorithm has proven to be highly versatile as it adapts to changes in the size of the training dataset and the number of aerosol classes and classifying parameters. Finally, the low computational time and demand for resources make the algorithm extremely suitable for the implementation within the single calculus chain (SCC), the EARLINET centralized processing suite., The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 602014 (project ECARS – East European Centre for Atmospheric Remote Sensing) and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research program for societal challenges – smart, green and integrated transport under grant agreement no. 723986 (project EUNADICS-AV – European Natural Disaster Coordination and Information System for Aviation).

Simultaneous measurements of aerosol hygroscopicity and particle-phase chemical composition were performed at a suburban site over the Pearl River Delta region in the late summer of 2016 using a self-assembled hygroscopic tandem differential mobility analyzer (HTDMA) and an Aerodyne quadruple aerosol chemical speciation monitor (ACSM), respectively. The hygroscopic growth factor (HGF) of the Aitken mode (30 nm, 60 nm) and accumulation mode (100 nm, 145 nm) particles were obtained under 90 % relative humidity (RH). An external mixture was observed for particles of every size during this study, with a dominant mode of more-hygroscopic (MH) particles, as aged aerosols dominated due to the anthropogenic influence. The HGF of less-hygroscopic (LH) mode particles increased, while their number fractions decreased during the daytime due to a reduced degree of external mixing that probably resulted from the condensation of gaseous species. These LH mode particles in the early morning or late afternoon could be possibly dominated by carbonaceous material emitted from local automobile exhaust during rush hours. During polluted days with air masses flowing mainly from the coastal areas, the chemical composition of aerosols had a clear diurnal variation and a strong correlation with the mean HGF. Closure analysis was carried out between the HTDMA-measured HGF and the ACSM-derived hygroscopicity using various approximations for the hygroscopic growth factor of organic compounds (HGForg). Considering the assumptions regarding the differences in the mass fraction of each component between PM1 and 145 nm particles, the hygroscopicity-composition closure was achieved using an HGForg of 1.26 for the organic material in the 145 nm particles and a simple linear relationship between the HGForg and the oxidation level inferred from the O:C ratio of the organic material was suggested. Compared with the results from other environments, HGForg obtained from our measurements appeared to be less sensitive to the variation of its oxidation level, which is, however, similar to the observations in the urban atmosphere of other megacities in China. This finding suggests that the anthropogenic precursors or the photooxidation mechanisms might differ significantly between the suburban and urban atmosphere in China and those in other background environments. This may lead to different characteristics of the oxidation products in secondary organic aerosols (SOA) and therefore to a different relationship between the HGForg and its O:C ratio.

In this study we apply and compare two algorithms for the automated aerosol-type characterization of the aerosol layers derived from Raman lidar measurements over the EARLINET station of Thessaloniki, Greece. Both automated aerosol-type characterization methods base their typing on lidar-derived aerosol-intensive properties. The methodologies are briefly described and their application to three distinct cases is demonstrated and evaluated. Then the two classification schemes were applied in the automatic mode to a more extensive dataset. The dataset analyzed corresponds to ACTRIS/EARLINET (European Aerosol Research Lidar NETwork) Thessaloniki data acquired during the period 2012–2015. Seventy-one layers out of 110 (percentage of 65 %) were typed by both techniques, and 56 of these 71 layers (percentage of 79 %) were attributed to the same aerosol type. However, as shown, the identification rate of both typing algorithms can be changed regarding the selection of appropriate threshold criteria. Four major types of aerosols are considered in this study: Dust, Maritime, PollutedSmoke and CleanContinental. The analysis showed that the two algorithms, when applied to real atmospheric conditions, provide typing results that are in good agreement regarding the automatic characterization of PollutedSmoke, while there are some differences between the two methods regarding the characterization of Dust and CleanContinental. These disagreements are mainly attributed to differences in the definitions of the aerosol types between the two methods, regarding the intensive properties used and their range.

The Mediterranean basin is characterized by large concentrations of aerosols from both natural and anthropogenic sources. These aerosols affect tropospheric photochemistry by modulating the photolytic rates. Three simulations of the atmospheric composition at basin scale have been performed with the CHIMERE chemistry-transport model for the period from 6 June to 15 July 2013 covered by the ADRIMED campaign, a campaign of intense measurements in the western Mediterranean basin. One simulation takes into account the radiative effect of the aerosols on photochemistry, the second one does not, and the third one is designed to quantify the model sensitivity to a bias in the ozone column. These simulations are compared to satellite and ground-based measurements, with a particular focus on the area of Lampedusa. Values of the aerosol optical depth (AOD) are obtained from the MODIS instrument on the AQUA and TERRA satellites as well as from stations in the AERONET network and from the MFRSR sun photometer deployed at Lampedusa. Additional measurements from instruments deployed at Lampedusa either permanently or exceptionally are used for other variables: MFRSR sun photometer for AOD, diode array spectrometer for actinic fluxes, LIDAR for the aerosol backscatter, sequential sampler for speciation of aerosol and Brewer spectrophotometer for the total ozone column. It is shown that CHIMERE has a significant ability to reproduce observed peaks in the AOD, which in Lampedusa are mainly due to dust outbreaks during the ADRIMED period, and that taking into account the radiative effect of the aerosols in CHIMERE considerably improves the ability of the model to reproduce the observed day-to-day variations of the photolysis rate of ozone to O2 and O(1D), J(O1D), and that of NO2 to NO and O(3P), J(NO2). While in the case of J(O1D) other variation factors such as the stratospheric ozone column are very important in representing correctly the day-to-day variations, the day-to-day variations of J(NO2) are captured almost completely by the model when the optical effects of the aerosols are taken into account. Finally, it is shown that the inclusion of the direct radiative effect of the aerosols in the CHIMERE model leads to reduced J(O1D) and J(NO2) values over all the simulation domain, which range from a few percents over continental Europe and the north-east Atlantic Ocean to about 20 % close to and downwind from Saharan dust sources. The effect on the modelled ozone concentration is 2-fold: the effect of aerosols leads to reduced ozone concentrations over the Mediterranean Sea and continental Europe, close to the sources of NOx, but it also leads to increased ozone concentrations over remote areas such as the Sahara and the tropical Atlantic Ocean.

In this study we attempted to better quantify radiative effects of dust over the Arabian Peninsula and their dependence on input parameters. For this purpose we have developed a stand-alone column radiation transport model coupled with the Mie, T-matrix and geometric optics calculations and driven by reanalysis meteorological fields and atmospheric composition. Numerical experiments were carried out for a wide range of aerosol optical depths, including extreme values developed during the dust storm on 18–20 March 2012. Comprehensive ground-based observations and satellite retrievals were used to estimate aerosol optical properties, validate calculations and carry out radiation closure. The broadband surface albedo, fluxes at the bottom and top of the atmosphere as well as instantaneous dust radiative forcing were estimated both from the model and observations. Diurnal cycle of the shortwave instantaneous dust direct radiative forcing was studied for a range of aerosol and surface characteristics representative of the Arabian Peninsula. Mechanisms and parameters responsible for diurnal variability of the radiative forcing were evaluated. We found that intrinsic variability of the surface albedo and its dependence on atmospheric conditions, along with anisotropic aerosol scattering, are mostly responsible for diurnal effects.

The simultaneous analysis of aerosol microphysical properties profiles at different European stations is made in the framework of the ChArMEx/EMEP 2012 field campaign (9-11 July 2012). During and in support of this campaign, five lidar ground-based stations (Athens, Barcelona, Bucharest, A parts per thousand vora, and Granada) performed 72aEuro-h of continuous lidar measurements and collocated and coincident sun-photometer measurements. Therefore it was possible to retrieve volume concentration profiles with the Lidar Radiometer Inversion Code (LIRIC). Results indicated the presence of a mineral dust plume affecting the western Mediterranean region (mainly the Granada station), whereas a different aerosol plume was observed over the Balkans area. LIRIC profiles showed a predominance of coarse spheroid particles above Granada, as expected for mineral dust, and an aerosol plume composed mainly of fine and coarse spherical particles above Athens and Bucharest. Due to the exceptional characteristics of the ChArMEx database, the analysis of the microphysical properties profiles' temporal evolution was also possible. An in-depth analysis was performed mainly at the Granada station because of the availability of continuous lidar measurements and frequent AERONET inversion retrievals. The analysis at Granada was of special interest since the station was affected by mineral dust during the complete analyzed period. LIRIC was found to be a very useful tool for performing continuous monitoring of mineral dust, allowing for the analysis of the dynamics of the dust event in the vertical and temporal coordinates. Results obtained here illustrate the importance of having collocated and simultaneous advanced lidar and sun-photometer measurements in order to characterize the aerosol microphysical properties in both the vertical and temporal coordinates at a regional scale. In addition, this study revealed that the use of the depolarization information as input in LIRIC in the stations of Bucharest, A parts per thousand vora, and Granada was crucial for the characterization of the aerosol types and their distribution in the vertical column, whereas in stations lacking depolarization lidar channels, ancillary information was needed. Results obtained were also used for the validation of different mineral dust models. In general, the models better forecast the vertical distribution of the mineral dust than the column-integrated mass concentration, which was underestimated in most of the cases. This work was supported by the Andalusia Regional Government through projects P12-RNM-2409 and P10-RNM-6299, by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through projects TEC2012-34575, TEC2015-63832-P, CGL2013-45410-R, CGL2011-13580-E/CLI, CGL2011-16124-E, and CGL2013-46736-R; by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (project UNPC10-4E-442); the EU through the H2020 project ACTRIS2 (contract number 654109); by the University of Granada through the contract “Plan Propio. Programa 9. Convocatoria 2013”; and by the Department of Economy and Knowledge of the Catalan autonomous government (grant 2014 SGR 583). M. J. Granados-Muñoz was funded under grant AP2009-0552 from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. S. N. Pereira was funded under fellowship SFRH/BPD/81132/2011 and projects FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-029212 (PTDC/GEO-MET/4222/2012 from the Portuguese Government). S. Basart and J. M. Baldasano acknowledge the CICYT project (CGL2010-19652 and CGL2013-46736) and Severo Ochoa Programme (SEV-2011-00067) of the Spanish Government. BSC-DREAM8b and NMMB/BSC-Dust simulations were performed on the Mare Nostrum supercomputer hosted by Barcelona Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS). This paper was realized also as a part of the project III43007 financed by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia within the framework of integrated and interdisciplinary research for the period 2011–2015. It has also received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development, and demonstration under grant agreement no. 289923 – ITaRS. The CIMEL calibration was performed at the AERONET-EUROPE calibration center, supported by ACTRIS-2 (EUH2020 grant agreement no. 654109. The authors express gratitude to the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory for the HYSPLIT transport and dispersion model; the ICARE Data and Services Center the MODIS team; and the ChArMEx project of the MISTRALS (Mediterranean Integrated Studies at Regional And Local Scales; http://www.mistrals-home.org) multidisciplinary research programme.

The shortwave (SW) radiation budget was computed on a 10 km × 10 km resolution above FORTH-CRETE AERONET station in Crete, Greece, for the 11-year period from 2000 to 2010. The area is representative of the Eastern Mediterranean region, where air pollution and diminishing water resources are exacerbated by high aerosol loads and climate change. The present study aims to quantify the aerosol direct effect and forcing on the local surface and atmospheric energy budget. A radiative transfer model was used, with climatological data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), on board NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. The instantaneous radiative fluxes were computed for satellite overpass times at the surface, within the atmosphere and at the top of atmosphere (TOA). Downward surface fluxes and aerosol input data were validated against ground measurements. Output fluxes reveal the direct radiative effects of dust events, with instantaneous values reaching up to −215, 139 and −46 Wm−2 at the surface (cooling), within the atmosphere (warming) and at TOA (cooling), respectively. Mean monthly values show a decreasing trend of the aerosol direct radiative effect, in agreement with a similar trend in AOT. The analysis of the contribution of anthropogenic and natural aerosol show major peaks of natural aerosol direct effect occurring mainly in spring, while a summer maximum is attributed to anthropogenic aerosol. During their peaks, anthropogenic aerosol forcing can reach values of −24 Wm−2 at the surface, 19 Wm−2 in the atmosphere and over −4 Wm−2 at TOA (monthly mean instantaneous values). The corresponding monthly peak values for natural aerosol are over −20 Wm−2, 12 Wm−2 and −9 Wm−2.

Wildland fires represent the major source of accumulation mode aerosol (i.e., atmospheric particles with diameters

Desert dust plays an important role in the climate system through its impact on Earth¿s radiative budget and its role in the biogeochemical cycle as a source of iron in highnutrient- low-chlorophyll regions. A large degree of diversity exists between the many global models that simulate the dust cycle to estimate its impact on climate. We present the results of a broad intercomparison of a total of 15 global aerosol models within the AeroCom project. Each model is compared to observations focusing on variables responsible for the uncertainties in estimating the direct radiative effect and the dust impact on the biogeochemical cycle, i.e., aerosol optical depth (AOD) and dust deposi10 tion. Additional comparisons to Angstro¨m Exponent (AE), coarse mode AOD and dust surface concentration are included to extend the assessment of model performance. These datasets form a benchmark data set which is proposed for model inspection and future dust model developments. In general, models perform better in simulating climatology of vertically averaged integrated parameters (AOD and AE) in dusty sites 15 than they do with total deposition and surface concentration. Almost all models overestimate deposition fluxes over Europe, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and ice core data. Differences among the models arise when simulating deposition at remote sites with low fluxes over the Pacific and the Southern Atlantic Ocean. This study also highlights important differences in models ability to reproduce the deposition flux over Antarctica. The cause of this discrepancy could not be identified but different dust regimes at each site and issues with data quality should be considered. Models generally simulate better surface concentration at stations downwind of the main sources than at remote ones. Likewise, they simulate better surface concentration at stations affected by Saharan dust than at stations affected by Asian dust. Most models simulate the gradient in AOD and AE between the different dusty regions, however the seasonality and magnitude of both variables is better simulated at African stations than Middle East ones. The models also reproduce the dust transport across the Atlantic in terms of both AOD and AE; they simulate the offshore transport of West Africa throughout the year and limit the transport across the Atlantic to the summer months, yet overestimating the AOD and transporting too fine particles. However, most of the models do not reproduce the southward displacement of the dust cloud during the winter responsible of the transport of dust into South America. Based on the dependency of AOD on aerosol 5 burden and size distribution we use model data bias with respect to AOD and AE and infer on the over/under estimation of the dust emissions. According to this we suggest the emissions in the Sahara be between 792 and 2271 Tg/yr and the one in the Middle East between 376 and 526 Tg/yr., JRC.DDG.H.2-Climate change and air quality

Europe is a densely populated region that is a significant global source of black carbon (BC) aerosol, but there is a lack of information regarding the physical properties and spatial/vertical distribution of BC in the region. We present the first aircraft observations of sub-micron BC aerosol concentrations and physical properties measured by a single particle soot photometer (SP2) in the lower troposphere over Europe. The observations spanned a region roughly bounded by 50° to 60° N and from 15° W to 30° E. The measurements, made between April and September 2008, showed that average BC mass concentrations ranged from about 300 ng m−3 near urban areas to approximately 50 ng m−3 in remote continental regions, lower than previous surface-based measurements. BC represented between 0.5 and 3% of the sub-micron aerosol mass. Black carbon mass size distributions were log-normally distributed and peaked at approximately 180 nm, but shifted to smaller diameters (~160 nm) near source regions. Black carbon was correlated with carbon monoxide (CO) but had different ratios to CO depending on location and air mass. Light absorption coefficients were measured by particle soot absorption photometers on two separate aircraft and showed similar geographic patterns to BC mass measured by the SP2, but differed by at least a factor of two compared to each other. We summarize the BC and light absorption measurements as a function of longitude and air mass age and also provide profiles of BC mass concentrations and size distribution statistics. Our results will help evaluate model-predicted regional BC concentrations and properties and determine regional and global climate impacts from BC due to atmospheric heating and surface dimming.

We present LIVAS (LIdar climatology of Vertical Aerosol Structure for space-based lidar simulation studies), a 3-D multi-wavelength global aerosol and cloud optical database, optimized to be used for future space-based lidar end-to-end simulations of realistic atmospheric scenarios as well as retrieval algorithm testing activities. The LIVAS database provides averaged profiles of aerosol optical properties for the potential spaceborne laser operating wavelengths of 355, 532, 1064, 1570 and 2050 nm and of cloud optical properties at the wavelength of 532 nm. The global database is based on CALIPSO observations at 532 and 1064 nm and on aerosol-type-dependent backscatter- and extinction-related Ångström exponents, derived from EARLINET (European Aerosol Research Lidar Network) ground-based measurements for the UV and scattering calculations for the IR wavelengths, using a combination of input data from AERONET, suitable aerosol models and recent literature. The required spectral conversions are calculated for each of the CALIPSO aerosol types and are applied to CALIPSO backscatter and extinction data corresponding to the aerosol type retrieved by the CALIPSO aerosol classification scheme. A cloud optical database based on CALIPSO measurements at 532 nm is also provided, neglecting wavelength conversion due to approximately neutral scattering behavior of clouds along the spectral range of LIVAS. Averages of particle linear depolarization ratio profiles at 532 nm are provided as well. Finally, vertical distributions for a set of selected scenes of specific atmospheric phenomena (e.g., dust outbreaks, volcanic eruptions, wild fires, polar stratospheric clouds) are analyzed and spectrally converted so as to be used as case studies for spaceborne lidar performance assessments. The final global data set includes 4-year (1 January 2008–31 December 2011) time-averaged CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations) data on a uniform grid of 1° × 1° with the original high vertical resolution of CALIPSO in order to ensure realistic simulations of the atmospheric variability in lidar end-to-end simulations.

The sensitivity to two different emission inventories, injection altitude and temporal variations of anthropogenic emissions in aerosol modelling is studied, using the two way nested global transport chemistry model TM5 focussing on Europe in June and December 2000. The simulations of gas and aerosol concentrations and aerosol optical depth (AOD) with the EMEP and AEROCOM emission inventories are compared with EMEP gas and aerosol surface based measurements, AERONET sun photometers retrievals and MODIS satellite data. For the aerosol precursor gasses NOx and SO2 in both months the model results calculated with the EMEP inventory agree better with the EMEP measurements than the simulation with the AEROCOM inventory. In June, with the AEROCOM inventory, SO2 and NOx concentrations are overestimated by a factor of 2.4 and 1.9, respectively. In contrast, the EMEP inventory only slightly overestimates the measured concentrations with a factor 1.3 for both SO2 and NOx. Besides the differences in total emissions between the two inventories, an important role is also played by the vertical distribution of SO2 and NOx emissions in understanding the differences between the EMEP and AEROCOM inventories. In December NOx and SO2 from both simulations agree within 50 % with observations. In June SO4= evaluated with the EMEP emission inventory agrees slightly better with surface observations than the AEROCOM simulation, whereas in December the use of both inventories results in an underestimate of SO4 with a factor 2. Nitrate aerosol measured in summer is not reliable, however in December nitrate aerosol calculations with the EMEP and AEROCOM agree with 30%, and 60 %, respectively with the filter measurements. Differences are caused by the total emissions and the temporal distribution of the aerosol precursor gasses NOx and NH3. Despite these differences, we show that the column integrated AOD is less sensitive to the underlying emission inventories. Calculated AOD values with both emission inventories underestimate the observed AERONET AOD values by 20 - 30%, whereas a case study using MODIS data shows a high spatial agreement. Our evaluation of the role of temporal distribution of anthropogenic emissions on aerosol calculations shows that the daily and weekly temporal distributions of the emissions are only important for NOx, NH3 and aerosol nitrate. For the aerosols species SO4=, NH4+, POM, BC, as well as for AOD, the weekly and daily temporal variation appear not to be important. However, the seasonal temporal variations used in the emission inventory are important for all species under consideration. Our study shows the value of including at least seasonal information on anthropogenic emissions, although from a comparison with a range of measurements it is often difficult to firmly identify the superiority of specific emission inventories, since other modelling uncertainties, e.g. related to transport, aerosol removal, water uptake, and model resolution, play a dominant role., JRC.H.4-Transport and air quality