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Aerosolized black carbon is monitored worldwide to quantify its impact on air quality and climate. Given its importance, measurements of black carbon mass concentrations must be conducted with instruments operating in quality-checked and ensured conditions to generate data which are reliable and comparable temporally and geographically. In this study, we report the results from the largest characterization and intercomparison of filter-based absorption photometers, the Aethalometer model AE33, belonging to several European monitoring networks. Under controlled laboratory conditions, a total of 23 instruments measured mass concentrations of black carbon from three well-characterized aerosol sources: synthetic soot, nigrosin particles, and ambient air from the urban background of Leipzig, Germany. The objective was to investigate the individual performance of the instruments and their comparability; we analyzed the response of the instruments to the different aerosol sources and the impact caused by the use of obsolete filter materials and the application of maintenance activities. Differences in the instrument-to-instrument variabilities from equivalent black carbon (eBC) concentrations reported at 880 nm were determined before maintenance activities (for soot measurements, average deviation from total least square regression was −2.0 % and the range −16 % to 7 %; for nigrosin measurements, average deviation was 0.4 % and the range −15 % to 17 %), and after they were carried out (for soot measurements, average deviation was −1.0 % and the range −14 % to 8 %; for nigrosin measurements, the average deviation was 0.5 % and the range −12 % to 15 %). The deviations are in most of the cases explained by the type of filter material employed by the instruments, the total particle load on the filter, and the flow calibration. The results of this intercomparison activity show that relatively small unit-to-unit variability of AE33-based particle light absorbing measurements is possible with well-maintained instruments. It is crucial to follow the guidelines for maintenance activities and the use of the proper filter tape in the AE33 to ensure high quality and comparable black carbon (BC) measurements among international observational networks., ACTRIS and COLOSSAL provided financial support for the execution of the experiments. Instrument S04-00387 is operated and maintained thanks to the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (project nos. CGL2016-81092-R, CGL2017-42 90884REDT, and RTI2018.101154.A.I00). Gloria Titos is funded by the Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación postdoctoral program (grant no. IJCI-2016-29838). IMT Lille Douai (Joel Ferreira De Brito, Veronique Riffault) received financial support from the Labex CaPPA project, which is funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) through the PIA (Programme d'Investissement d'Avenir) (contract no. ANR-11-LABX-0005-01), and the CLIMIBIO project; both projects are financed by the Regional Council “Hauts-de-France” and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The operation of instruments S00-00055 and S02-00156 is funded by the projects CRISOL (MINECO/AEI/FEDER, UE; grant no. CGL2017-85344-R) and TIGAS-CM (grant no. Y2018/EMT-5177).

This paper presents the light-scattering properties of atmospheric aerosol particles measured over the past decade at 28 ACTRIS observatories, which are located mainly in Europe. The data include particle light scattering (σsp) and hemispheric backscattering (σbsp) coefficients, scattering Ångström exponent (SAE), backscatter fraction (BF) and asymmetry parameter (g). An increasing gradient of σsp is observed when moving from remote environments (arctic/mountain) to regional and to urban environments. At a regional level in Europe, σsp also increases when moving from Nordic and Baltic countries and from western Europe to central/eastern Europe, whereas no clear spatial gradient is observed for other station environments. The SAE does not show a clear gradient as a function of the placement of the station. However, a west-to-east-increasing gradient is observed for both regional and mountain placements, suggesting a lower fraction of fine-mode particle in western/south-western Europe compared to central and eastern Europe, where the fine-mode particles dominate the scattering. The g does not show any clear gradient by station placement or geographical location reflecting the complex relationship of this parameter with the physical properties of the aerosol particles. Both the station placement and the geographical location are important factors affecting the intraannual variability. At mountain sites, higher σsp and SAE values are measured in the summer due to the enhanced boundary layer influence and/or new particle-formation episodes. Conversely, the lower horizontal and vertical dispersion during winter leads to higher σsp values at all low-altitude sites in central and eastern Europe compared to summer. These sites also show SAE maxima in the summer (with corresponding g minima). At all sites, both SAE and g show a strong variation with aerosol particle loading. The lowest values of g are always observed together with low σsp values, indicating a larger contribution from particles in the smaller accumulation mode. During periods of high σsp values, the variation of g is less pronounced, whereas the SAE increases or decreases, suggesting changes mostly in the coarse aerosol particle mode rather than in the fine mode. Statistically significant decreasing trends of σsp are observed at 5 out of the 13 stations included in the trend analyses. The total reductions of σsp are consistent with those reported for PM2.5 and PM10 mass concentrations over similar periods across Europe. © Author(s) 2018., Acknowledgements. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 654109, ACTRIS (project no. 262254), ACTRIS-PPP (project no. 739530). We thank the International Foundation High Altitude Research Stations JFJ (Jungfraujoch) and Gornergrat (HFSJG), which made it possible to carry out the experiments at the High Altitude Research JFJ Station and the support of MeteoSwiss within the Swiss programme of the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) of the WMO. The MAD (Madrid) station is co-financed by the PROACLIM (CGL2014-52877-R) project. The SMR (Hyytiälä) station acknowledges BACCHUS (project no. 603445), CRAICC (project no. 26060) and the Academy of Finland (project no. 3073314). The UGR (Granada) station is co-financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through project CGL2016-81092-R. Measurements at MSY (Montseny) and MSA (Montsec) stations were supported by the MINECO (Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness) and FEDER funds under the PRISMA project (CGL2012-39623-C02/00) and under the HOUSE project (CGL2016-78594-R), by the MAGRAMA (Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment) and by the Generalitat de Catalunya (AGAUR 2014 SGR33, AGAUR 2017 SGR41 and the DGQA). Measurements at IZO (Izaña) were supported by the AEROATLAN project (CGL2015-17 66229-P), co-funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain and the European Regional Development Fund. Station KOS (Košetice) is supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic within the project to support the national research infrastructure ACTRIS – participation of the Czech Republic (ACTRIS-CZ – LM2015037). Measurements at PUY (Puy de Dôme) were partly supported by CNRS-INSU, University Clermont-Auvergne, OPGC and the french CLAP programme. The PAL (Pallas) station acknowledges KONE Foundation, Academy of Finland (project no. 269095 and no. 296302). CHC (Mt Chacaltaya) station received support from Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) under both Jeune Equipe programme attributed to LFA and support to ACTRIS-FR programme. CHC received grants from Labex OSUG@2020 (Investissements d’avenir – ANR10 LABX56). Marco Pandolfi is funded by a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship (RYC-2013-14036) awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. The authors would like to express their gratitude to David Carslaw and Karl Ropkins for providing the OpenAir software used in this paper (Carslaw and Ropkins, 2012; Carslaw, 2012). We also thank the co-editor Andreas Petzold and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

In early spring the Baltic region is frequently affected by high-pollution events due to biomass burning in that area. Here we present a comprehensive study to investigate the impact of biomass/grass burning (BB) on the evolution and composition of aerosol in Preila, Lithuania, during springtime open fires. Non-refractory submicron particulate matter (NR-PM1) was measured by an Aerodyne aerosol chemical speciation monitor (ACSM) and a source apportionment with the multilinear engine (ME-2) running the positive matrix factorization (PMF) model was applied to the organic aerosol fraction to investigate the impact of biomass/grass burning. Satellite observations over regions of biomass burning activity supported the results and identification of air mass transport to the area of investigation. Sharp increases in biomass burning tracers, such as levoglucosan up to 683 ng m−3 and black carbon (BC) up to 17 µg m−3 were observed during this period. A further separation between fossil and non-fossil primary and secondary contributions was obtained by coupling ACSM PMF results and radiocarbon (14C) measurements of the elemental (EC) and organic (OC) carbon fractions. Non-fossil organic carbon (OCnf) was the dominant fraction of PM1, with the primary (POCnf) and secondary (SOCnf) fractions contributing 26–44 % and 13–23 % to the total carbon (TC), respectively. 5–8 % of the TC had a primary fossil origin (POCf), whereas the contribution of fossil secondary organic carbon (SOCf) was 4–13 %. Non-fossil EC (ECnf) and fossil EC (ECf) ranged from 13–24 and 7–13 %, respectively. Isotope ratios of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes were used to distinguish aerosol particles associated with solid and liquid fossil fuel burning.