Resumen de Temporal Characterization of Particulate Matter over the Iberian Peninsula to Support the Brightening Phenomena in the Last Decades
David Mateos Villan, Victoria Eugenia Cachorro Revilla, Yasmine Bennouna, Carlos Toledano Olmeda, M.A. Burgos, Ángel Máximo de Frutos Baraja
The Iberian Peninsula has shown notable variations of the surface solar irradiance in the last decades. Particularly, an increase trend in its levels is reported since the 1990s (brightening period, BP). Aerosol particles are able to modulate solar radiation in the atmosphere. Hence, the main aim of this study is to evaluate the temporal trends of particulate matter (PM) over the Iberian Peninsula in order to analyze the role played by aerosol particles in the observed BP and, therefore, in the Earth's radiative budget. Six longterm sites belonging to EMEP (European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme) network are used in the periods 1988-2000 and 2001-2012. As a main result, a strong reduction of the PM concentration is found over the Iberian Peninsula in the 1988-2000 period, which is still observable between 2001-2012. Therefore, this reduction of the surface aerosols can contribute to the solar radiation increase in the last decades.
