title: Columnar and surface aerosol load over the Iberian Peninsula establishing annual cycles, trends, and relationships in five geographical sectors.
abstract: The study of atmospheric aerosol load over the Iberian Peninsula (IP) under a climatological perspective is accomplished by means of PM10 and AOD440 nm measurements from EMEP and AERONET networks, respectively, in the period 2000-2013. The PM10 annual cycles in five Iberian sectors show a main maximum in summer and a secondary maximum in spring, which is only observed in the southern area for the AOD climatology. The characteristics of PM10-AOD annual cycles of each geographical sector are explained by the different climatology of the air mass origins and their apportioning. The two magnitudes are correlated with a factor ranging between 20 and 90 depending on the sector. The temporal evolution of the aerosol load has shown a notable decrease in the IP since the 1980s. Statistically significant trends are obtained in the Northeastern sector with a reduction of 26% (period 1985-2000) for the total suspended particles, which continues for the PM10 data with a value of 35% per decade (2001-2013), and also in the whole column, 61% per decade in the AOD440 nm (2004-2013).
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Óptica Atmosférica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valladolid, Paseo Belén 7, CP 47011 Valladolid, Spain. Electronic address: mateos@goa.uva.es.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mateos
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Óptica Atmosférica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valladolid, Paseo Belén 7, CP 47011 Valladolid, Spain.
authors.forename: V E
authors.initials: VE
authors.lastname: Cachorro
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Óptica Atmosférica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valladolid, Paseo Belén 7, CP 47011 Valladolid, Spain.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Toledano
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Óptica Atmosférica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valladolid, Paseo Belén 7, CP 47011 Valladolid, Spain.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Burgos
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Óptica Atmosférica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valladolid, Paseo Belén 7, CP 47011 Valladolid, Spain.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bennouna
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Óptica Atmosférica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valladolid, Paseo Belén 7, CP 47011 Valladolid, Spain.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Óptica Atmosférica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valladolid, Paseo Belén 7, CP 47011 Valladolid, Spain.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fuertes
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Óptica Atmosférica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valladolid, Paseo Belén 7, CP 47011 Valladolid, Spain.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: González
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Óptica Atmosférica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valladolid, Paseo Belén 7, CP 47011 Valladolid, Spain.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Guirado
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Óptica Atmosférica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valladolid, Paseo Belén 7, CP 47011 Valladolid, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Calle
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Óptica Atmosférica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valladolid, Paseo Belén 7, CP 47011 Valladolid, Spain.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: de Frutos
keywords: Aerosol climatology; Aerosol load trend; Aerosol optical depth; Air mass analysis; Particulate matter