Showing papers by "Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology published in 2012"

Decontamination of Bisphenol A from Aqueous Solution by Graphene Adsorption

Abstract: The decontamination of bisphenol A (BPA) from aqueous solution by graphene adsorption was investigated. The maximum adsorption capacity (qm) of graphene for BPA obtained from a Langmuir isotherm was 182 mg/g at 302.15 K, which was among the highest values of BPA adsorption compared with other carbonaceous adsorbents according to the literature. Both π–π interactions and hydrogen bonds might be responsible for the adsorption of BPA on graphene, and the excellent adsorption capacity of graphene was due to its unique sp2-hybridized single-atom-layer structure. Therefore, graphene could be regarded as a promising adsorbent for BPA removal in water treatment. The kinetics and isotherm data can be well described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the Langmuir isotherm, respectively. The thermodynamic studies indicated that the adsorption reaction was a spontaneous and exothermic process. Besides, the presence of NaCl in the solution could facilitate the adsorption process, whereas the alkaline pH rang...

Thermal Controls on the Asian Summer Monsoon

Abstract: The Asian summer monsoon affects more than sixty percent of the world's population; understanding its controlling factors is becoming increasingly important due to the expanding human influence on the environment and climate and the need to adapt to global climate change. Various mechanisms have been suggested; however, an overarching paradigm delineating the dominant factors for its generation and strength remains debated. Here we use observation data and numerical experiments to demonstrates that the Asian summer monsoon systems are controlled mainly by thermal forcing whereas large-scale orographically mechanical forcing is not essential: the South Asian monsoon south of 20°N by land–sea thermal contrast, its northern part by the thermal forcing of the Iranian Plateau and the East Asian monsoon and the eastern part of the South Asian monsoon by the thermal forcing of the Tibetan Plateau.

Incremental gradient on the Grassmannian for online foreground and background separation in subsampled video

Abstract: It has recently been shown that only a small number of samples from a low-rank matrix are necessary to reconstruct the entire matrix. We bring this to bear on computer vision problems that utilize low-dimensional subspaces, demonstrating that subsampling can improve computation speed while still allowing for accurate subspace learning. We present GRASTA, Grassmannian Robust Adaptive Subspace Tracking Algorithm, an online algorithm for robust subspace estimation from randomly subsampled data. We consider the specific application of background and foreground separation in video, and we assess GRASTA on separation accuracy and computation time. In one benchmark video example [16], GRASTA achieves a separation rate of 46.3 frames per second, even when run in MATLAB on a personal laptop.

Bamboo fiber and its reinforced composites: structure and properties

Abstract: Natural plant fibers have unequivocally contributed economic prosperity and sustainability in our daily lives. Particularly, bamboo fibers have been used for industrial applications as diverse as textiles, paper, and construction. Recent renewed interest in bamboo fiber (BF) is primarily targeted for the replacement or reduction in use of glass fiber from non-renewable resources. In this review, various mechanical, chemical, and biological approaches for the preparation and separation of macro-, micro-, and nano-sized fibers from raw bamboo are summarized. The differences in the mechanical, thermal, and other properties of fibers from different materials are linked to their size, aspect ratio, surface charge and groups, and their function in nature. Biocomposites made of BF are considered to be green, environmentally responsible eco-products. Different processing parameters such as fiber extraction, surface modification, and synthesis of the composites affect the characteristics of composites. Fiber length, orientation, concentration, dispersion, aspect ratio, selection of matrix, and chemistry of the matrix must all be considered during fabrication in order to achieve desirable functionalities and performance. Because of the hydrophilic nature of BF, different methods may be adopted to improve interfacial surface adhesion. A better understanding of the fiber structure and characteristics that influence composite performance could lead to the development of additives, coatings, binders, or sizing suitable for natural fiber and a variety of polymeric matrices.

Climatology of the planetary boundary layer over the continental United States and Europe

Abstract: [1] Although boundary layer processes are important in climate, weather and air quality, boundary layer climatology has received little attention, partly for lack of observational data sets. We analyze boundary layer climatology over Europe and the continental U.S. using a measure of boundary layer height based on the bulk Richardson number. Seasonal and diurnal variations during 1981–2005 are estimated from radiosonde observations, a reanalysis that assimilates observations, and two contemporary climate models that do not. Data limitations in vertical profiles introduce height uncertainties that can exceed 50% for shallow boundary layers (<1 km) but are generally <20% for deeper boundary layers. Climatological heights are typically <1 km during daytime and <0.5 km at night over both regions. Seasonal patterns for daytime and nighttime differ; daytime heights are larger in summer than winter, but nighttime heights are larger in winter. The four data sets show similar patterns of spatial and seasonal variability but with biases that vary spatially, seasonally, and diurnally. Compared with radiosonde observations, the reanalysis and the climate models produce deeper layers due to difficulty simulating stable conditions. The higher-time-resolution reanalysis reveals the diurnal cycle in height, with maxima in the afternoon, and with amplitudes that vary seasonally (larger in summer) and regionally (larger over western U.S. and southern Europe). The lower-time-resolution radiosonde data and climate model simulations capture diurnal variations better over Europe than over the U.S., due to differences in local sampling times.

Soil salinity development in the yellow river delta in relation to groundwater dynamics

Abstract: The Yellow River Delta occupies an important position in the global ecosystem because of its valuable wetland habitat resources for migratory birds on the Eastern Pacific migration route. However, it has suffered from severe land degradation because of soil salinization. This paper assesses the distribution maps of saline soils during the past two decades, using field observations at three points in time using remote sensing images for the same periods, in combination with spatial models. Soil salinization appears to have expanded from the coastline to inland areas of the Yelow River Delta at a surprising speed during that period. The spatio-temporal dynamics of the groundwater table and total dissolved solids (TDS) during the last 20 years were analyzed using maps based on Kriging interpolation. Kriging helped substantially to improve the accurateness of the predicted values of soil salt content, using a random subsample of the observation points as validation basis. Correlation analysis of the spatial data revealed that the distribution and evolution of saline soils are closely related to the dynamics of groundwater: the aggravation of soil salinization is associated with a rising groundwater table and increasing TDS. Insufficient recharge of the groundwater with fresh surface water due to reduced Yellow River discharge and subsequent seawater intrusion are therefore serious environmental problems in the Yellow River Delta ecosystem. Copyright (c) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Cross-Polarized Synthetic Aperture Radar: A New Potential Measurement Technique for Hurricanes

Abstract: We present an empirical C-band Cross-Polarization Ocean (C-2PO) model for wind retrievals from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data collected by the RADARSAT-2 satellite. The C-2PO model relates normalized radar cross section (NRCS) in cross polarization to wind speed at 10-m height. This wind retrieval model has the characteristic that it is independent of wind direction and radar incidence angle but is quite linear with respect to wind speed. To evaluate the accuracy of the proposed model, winds with a resolution on the scale of 1 km were retrieved from a dual-polarization SAR image of Hurricane Earl on 2 September 2010, using the C-2PO model and compared with CMOD5.N, the newest available C-band geophysical model function (GMF), and validated with collocated airborne stepped-frequency microwave radiometer measurements and National Data Buoy Center data. Results suggest that for winds up to 38 m s−1, C-2PO has a bias of −0.89 m s−1 and a root-meansquare error of 3.23 m s−1 compared to CMOD5.N, which has ...

Extreme climate events in China: IPCC-AR4 model evaluation and projection

Abstract: Observations from 550 surface stations in China during 1961–2000 are used to evaluate the skill of seven global coupled climate models in simulating extreme temperature and precipitation indices. It is found that the models have certain abilities to simulate both the spatial distributions of extreme climate indices and their trends in the observed period. The models’ abilities are higher overall for extreme temperature indices than for extreme precipitation indices. The well-simulated temperature indices are frost days (Fd), heat wave duration index (HWDI) and annual extreme temperature range (ETR). The well-simulated precipitation indices are the fraction of annual precipitation total due to events exceeding the 95th percentile (R95T) and simple daily intensity index (SDII). In a general manner, the multi-model ensemble has the best skill. For the projections of the extreme temperature indices, trends over the twenty-first century and changes at the end of the twenty-first century go into the same direction. Both frost days and annual extreme temperature range show decreasing trends, while growing season length, heat wave duration and warm nights show increasing trends. The increases are especially manifested in the Tibetan Plateau and in Southwest China. For extreme precipitation indices, the end of the twenty-first century is expected to have more frequent and more intense extreme precipitation. This is particularly visible in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, in the Southeast coastal region, in the west part of Northwest China, and in the Tibetan Plateau. In the meanwhile, accompanying the decrease in the maximum number of consecutive dry days in Northeast and Northwest, drought situation will reduce in these regions.

Learning ordinal discriminative features for age estimation

Abstract: In this paper, we present a new method for facial age estimation based on ordinal discriminative feature learning. Considering the temporally ordinal and continuous characteristic of aging process, the proposed method not only aims at preserving the local manifold structure of facial images, but also it wants to keep the ordinal information among aging faces. Moreover, we try to remove redundant information from both the locality information and ordinal information as much as possible by minimizing nonlinear correlation and rank correlation. Finally, we formulate these two issues into a unified optimization problem of feature selection and present an efficient solution. The experiments are conducted on the public available Images of Groups dataset and the FG-NET dataset, and the experimental results demonstrate the power of the proposed method against the state-of-the-art methods.

Attributing carbon changes in conterminous U.S. forests to disturbance and non-disturbance factors from 1901 to 2010

Abstract: [1] Recent climate variability (increasing temperature, droughts) and atmospheric composition changes (nitrogen deposition, rising CO2 concentration) along with harvesting, wildfires, and insect infestations have had significant effects on U.S. forest carbon (C) uptake. In this study, we attribute C changes in the conterminous U.S. forests to disturbance and non-disturbance factors with the help of forest inventory data, a continental stand age map, and an updated Integrated Terrestrial Ecosystem Carbon Cycle model (InTEC). We grouped factors into disturbances (harvesting, fire, insect infestation) and non-disturbances (CO2 concentration, N deposition, and climate variability) and estimated their subsequent impacts on forest regrowth patterns. Results showed that on average, the C sink in the conterminous U.S. forests from 1950 to 2010 was 206 Tg C yr � 1 with 87% (180 Tg C yr � 1 ) of the sink in living biomass. Compared with the simulation of all factors combined, the estimated C sink would be reduced by 95 Tg C yr � 1 if disturbance factors were omitted, and reduced by 50 Tg C yr � 1 if non-disturbance factors were omitted. Our study also showed diverse regional patterns of C sinks related to the importance of driving factors. During 1980–2010, disturbance effects dominated the C changes in the South and Rocky Mountain regions, were almost equal to non-disturbance effects in the North region, and had minor effects compared with non-disturbance effects in the West Coast region.

Modulation of the Tibetan Plateau Snow Cover on the ENSO Teleconnections: From the East Asian Summer Monsoon Perspective

Abstract: TheEastAsiansummermonsoon(EASM)mayexhibitratherlargevariabilitybetweenyearscharacterized by the same ENSO phase. Such inconsistency reduces the EASM predictability based on ENSO. Results in this study show that the Tibetan Plateau snow cover (TPSC) exerts a modulating effect on ENSO teleconnections and ENSO significantly correlates with the EASM only during the reduced TPSC summers. Three-dimensional circulation structures are examined to manifest that the typical ENSO signals in reduced TPSC summers tend to be stronger than in excessive TPSC summers. Numerical and theoretical evidences indicate that the anomalously reduced TPSC can force positive geopotential height anomalies at the upper troposphereandweakenthejetstreamsacrosseasternAsiaandnorthwesternPacific.Governedbysuchbasic state zonal flows, the extratropical Rossby wave response to the ENSO forcing usually has a larger amplitude and pronounced westward development. In such case, ENSO extends its influences to eastern Asia and enhances its connection with the EASM.

Weakened cyclones, intensified anticyclones and recent extreme cold winter weather events in Eurasia

Abstract: Extreme cold winter weather events over Eurasia have occurred more frequently in recent years in spite of a warming global climate. To gain further insight into this regional mismatch with the global mean warming trend, we analyzed winter cyclone and anticyclone activities, and their interplay with the regional atmospheric circulation pattern characterized by the semi-permanent Siberian high. We found a persistent weakening of both cyclones and anticyclones between the 1990s and early 2000s, and a pronounced intensification of anticyclone activity afterwards. It is suggested that this intensified anticyclone activity drives the substantially strengthening and northwestward shifting/expanding Siberian high, and explains the decreased midlatitude Eurasian surface air temperature and the increased frequency of cold weather events. The weakened tropospheric midlatitude westerlies in the context of the intensified anticyclones would reduce the eastward propagation speed of Rossby waves, favoring persistence and further intensification of surface anticyclone systems.

Multifractal detrended cross-correlations between the Chinese exchange market and stock market

Abstract: Based on the daily price data of the Chinese Yuan (RMB)/US dollar exchange rate and the Shanghai Stock Composite Index, we conducted an empirical analysis of the cross-correlations between the Chinese exchange market and stock market using the multifractal cross-correlation analysis method. The results demonstrate the overall significance of the cross-correlation based on the analysis of a statistic. Multifractality exists in cross-correlations, and the cross-correlated behavior of small fluctuations is more persistent than that of large fluctuations. Moreover, using the rolling windows method, we find that the cross-correlations between the Chinese exchange market and stock market vary with time and are especially sensitive to the reform of the RMB exchange rate regime. The previous reduction in the flexibility of the RMB exchange rate in July 2008 strengthened the persistence of cross-correlations and decreased the degree of multifractality, whereas the enhancement of the flexibility of the RMB exchange rate in June 2010 weakened the persistence of cross-correlations and increased the multifractality. Finally, several relevant discussions are provided to verify the robustness of our empirical analysis.

Ocean Vector Winds Retrieval From C-Band Fully Polarimetric SAR Measurements

Abstract: We present an efficient algorithm for retrieving the ocean-surface wind vector from C-band Radar Satellite RADARSAT-2 fully polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) measurements based upon the copolarized geophysical model function, i.e., CMOD5.N, and the cross-polarized ocean backscatter model, i.e., C-2PO. The analysis of fine quad-polarization mode single-look complex SAR data and collocated in situ moored buoy observations reveals that the polarimetric correlation coefficient between co- and cross-polarization channels has odd symmetry with respect to the wind direction. This characteristic is different from the feature that normalized radar cross sections for quad-polarization have even symmetry regarding the wind direction. We first use the C-2PO model to directly retrieve wind speeds without any external wind-direction and radar-incidence-angle inputs. Subsequently, the retrieved wind speeds, along with incidence angles and CMOD5.N, are employed to invert the wind direction, still with ambiguities. The odd-symmetry property is then applied to remove the wind direction ambiguities. Thus, it is shown that fully polarimetric SAR measurements provide complementary directional information for the ocean-surface wind fields. This method has the potential to improve wind vector retrievals from space.

Rough sets and current trends in computing: proceedings of the 8th international conference

Abstract: This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Rough Sets and Current Trends in Computing, RSCTC, held in Chengdu, China, in August 2012, as one of the co-located conferences of the 2012 Joint Rough Set Symposium, JRS 2012. The 55 revised full papers presented together with one keynote paper were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on rough sets and its applications; current trends in computing; decision-theoretic rough set model and applications; formal concept analysis and granular computing; mining complex data with granular computing; data mining competition.

Real-Time Probabilistic Covariance Tracking With Efficient Model Update

Abstract: The recently proposed covariance region descriptor has been proven robust and versatile for a modest computational cost. The covariance matrix enables efficient fusion of different types of features, where the spatial and statistical properties, as well as their correlation, are characterized. The similarity between two covariance descriptors is measured on Riemannian manifolds. Based on the same metric but with a probabilistic framework, we propose a novel tracking approach on Riemannian manifolds with a novel incremental covariance tensor learning (ICTL). To address the appearance variations, ICTL incrementally learns a low-dimensional covariance tensor representation and efficiently adapts online to appearance changes of the target with only computational complexity, resulting in a real-time performance. The covariance-based representation and the ICTL are then combined with the particle filter framework to allow better handling of background clutter, as well as the temporary occlusions. We test the proposed probabilistic ICTL tracker on numerous benchmark sequences involving different types of challenges including occlusions and variations in illumination, scale, and pose. The proposed approach demonstrates excellent real-time performance, both qualitatively and quantitatively, in comparison with several previously proposed trackers.

Introduction to Suomi national polar‐orbiting partnership advanced technology microwave sounder for numerical weather prediction and tropical cyclone applications

Abstract: [1] The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite was successfully launched on 28 October 2011. On board the Suomi NPP, the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) is a cross-track scanning instrument and has 22 channels at frequencies ranging from 23 to 183 GHz which allows for probing the atmospheric temperature and moisture under clear and cloudy conditions. ATMS inherited most of the sounding channels from its predecessors: Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A) and Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) onboard NOAA and MetOp satellites. However, ATMS has a wider scan swath and has no gaps between two consecutive orbits. It includes one new temperature sounding channel and two water vapor sounding channels and provides more details of thermal structures in lower troposphere, especially for the storm conditions such as tropical cyclones. While ATMS temperature sounding channels have shorter integration time and therefore higher noise than AMSU-A, the ATMS observations from their overlapping field of views are resampled to produce AMSU-A-like measurements.

Representation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current in the CMIP5 climate models and future changes under warming scenarios

Abstract: The representation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) in the fifth Coupled Models Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) is generally improved over CMIP3. The range of modeled transports in the historical (1976–2006) scenario is reduced (90–264 Sv) compared with CMIP3 (33–337 Sv) with a mean of 155 ± 51 Sv. The large intermodel range is associated with significant differences in the ACC density structure. The ACC position is accurately represented at most longitudes, with a small (1.27°) standard deviation in mean latitude. The westerly wind jet driving the ACC is biased too strong and too far north on average. Unlike CMIP3 there is no correlation between modeled ACC latitude and the position of the westerly wind jet. Under future climate forcing scenarios (2070–2099 mean) the modeled ACC transport changes by between −26 to +17 Sv and the ACC shifts polewards (equatorwards) in models where the transport increases (decreases). There is no significant correlation between the ACC position change and that of the westerly wind jet, which shifts polewards and strengthens. The subtropical gyres strengthen and expand southwards, while the change in subpolar gyre area varies between models. An increase in subpolar gyre area corresponds with a decreases in ACC transport and an equatorward shift in the ACC position, and vice versa for a contraction of the gyre area. There is a general decrease in density in the upper 1000 m, particularly equatorwards of the ACC core.

Possible association of the western Tibetan Plateau snow cover with the decadal to interdecadal variations of northern China heatwave frequency

Abstract: Northern China has been subject to increased heatwave frequency (HWF) in recent decades, which deteriorates the local droughts and desertification. More than half a billion people face drinking water shortages and worsening ecological environment. In this study, the variability in the western Tibetan Plateau snow cover (TPSC) is observed to have an intimate linkage with the first empirical orthogonal function mode of the summer HWF across China. This distinct leading mode is dominated by the decadal to inter-decadal variability and features a mono-sign pattern with the extreme value center prevailing over northern China and high pressure anomalies at mid- and upper troposphere over Mongolia and the adjacent regions. A simplified general circulation model is utilized to examine the possible physical mechanism. A reduced TPSC anomaly can induce a positive geopotential height anomaly at the mid- and upper troposphere and subsequently enhance the climatological high pressure ridge over Mongolia and the adjacent regions. The subsidence associated with the high pressure anomalies tends to suppress the local cloud formation, which increases the net radiation budget, heats the surface, and favors more heatwaves. On the other hand, the surface heating can excite high pressure anomalies at mid- and upper troposphere. The latter further strengthens the upper troposphere high pressure anomalies over Mongolia and the adjacent regions. Through such positive feedback effect, the TPSC is tied to the interdecadal variations of the northern China HWF.

Waste cooking oil as an energy resource: Review of Chinese policies

Abstract: Converting waste cooking oil into biofuel represents a three-win solution, dealing simultaneously with food security, pollution, and energy security. In this paper, we encode the policy documents of waste cooking oil refining biofuel in China based on content analysis, and explore the related policies from the two dimensions as basic policy tools and enterprises supply chain. Research indicates the weak institution coordination of policy issuing entities. Also, the findings show that tools of regulatory control and goal planning are overused. Policies of government procurement, outsourcing and biofuel consumption are relatively scarce. Generally, government focuses more on formulating policies from the strategic, administrative and regulatory aspects, while less on market-oriented initiatives as funding input and financial support.

Fashion retailing forecasting based on extreme learning machine with adaptive metrics of inputs

Abstract: In the fashion retail industry, a versatile sales forecasting system is crucial for fashion retailers. In order to avoid stock-out and maintain a high inventory fill rate, fashion retailers require specific and accurate sales forecasting systems. In this study, a hybrid method based on extreme learning machine model with the adaptive metrics of inputs is proposed for improving sales forecasting accuracy. The adaptive metrics of inputs can solve the problems of amplitude changing and trend determination, and reduce the effect of the overfitting of networks. The proposed algorithms are validated using real POS data of three fashion retailers selling high-ended, medium and basic fashion items in Hong Kong. It was found that the proposed model is practical for fashion retail sales forecasting and outperforms the auto-regression (AR), artificial neural network (ANN), and extreme learning machine (ELM) models.

Risk assessment to China’s agricultural drought disaster in county unit

Abstract: China faces drought disaster risk under the changing climate. Risk analysis is a suitable approach in order to design ex-ante measure able to anticipate effects of drought on agricultural production. In this article, with the support of historic drought disaster data from 583 agro-meteorological observations (1991–2009), a risk analysis method based on information diffusion theory was applied to create a new drought risk analysis model, and the risk of China’s agriculture drought disaster was evaluated on higher spatial resolution of county unit. The results show that in more than three hundred counties of China, risk probability was biyearly or annually when Drought Affected Index (DAI) was over 5%. When DAI was up to 40%, more than one hundred counties were prone to drought disaster annually or once every 5 years. This showed that the impact of drought disaster on China’s agriculture, whether in frequency or intensity, was large. With the different level of DAI, China’s agricultural drought risk pattern showed variable pattern characteristics. When DAI was low, the distribution of county agricultural drought risk in China presented the East–West pattern of differentiation, and high risk mainly lied in the eastern, low risk mainly in the western. On the other hand, when DAI was high, the distribution of county risk appeared a pattern of high in center, and the north areas higher than the south, increased gradually from southwest to northeast. Drought risk presents a clear zonal differentiation that may be result from stepped topography, different precipitation and hazard-affected bodies. Spread of high value area of drought risk in northern may be related to the southeast monsoon and ecological degradation in northern Ecotone.

Improved DV-Hop Node Localization Algorithm in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract: An improved algorithm is put forward to improve the poor locating performance of the DV-Hop algorithm, which is one of the range-free algorithms in wireless sensor networks. Firstly, we set some anchor nodes at the border land of monitoring regions. Secondly, the average one-hop distance between anchor nodes is modified, and the average one-hop distance used by each unknown node for estimating its location is modified through weighting the received average one-hop distances from anchor nodes. Finally, we use the particle swarm optimization to correct the position estimated by the 2D hyperbolic localization algorithm, which makes the result closer to the actual position. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has better localization performance in the localization precision and stability than the basic DV-Hop algorithm and some existing improved algorithms.

Seasonal variations of aerosol optical properties, vertical distribution and associated radiative effects in the Yangtze Delta region of China

Abstract: [1] Four years of columnar aerosol optical properties and a one-year vertical profiles of aerosol particle extinction coefficient at 527 nm are analyzed at Taihu in the central Yangtze River Delta region in eastern China. Seasonal variations of aerosol optical properties, vertical distribution, and influence on shortwave radiation and heating rates were investigated. Multiyear variations of aerosol optical depths (AOD), Angstrom exponents, single scattering albedo (SSA) and asymmetry factor (ASY) are analyzed, together with the vertical profile of aerosol extinction. AOD is largest in summer and smallest in winter. SSAs exhibit weak seasonal variation with the smallest values occurring during winter and the largest during summer. The vast majority of aerosol particles are below 2 km, and about 62%, 67%, 67% and 83% are confined to below 1 km in spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively. Five-day back trajectory analyses show that the some aerosols aloft are traced back to northern/northwestern China, as far as Mongolia and Siberia, in spring, autumn and winter. The presence of dust aerosols were identified based on the linear depolarization measurements together with other information (i.e., back trajectory, precipitation, aerosol index). Dust strongly impacts the vertical particle distribution in spring and autumn, with much smaller effects in winter. The annual mean aerosol direct shortwave radiative forcing (efficiency) at the bottom, top and within the atmosphere are −34.8 ± 9.1 (−54.4 ± 5.3), −8.2 ± 4.8 (−13.1 ± 1.5) and 26.7 ± 9.4 (41.3 ± 4.6) W/m2 (Wm−2 τ−1), respectively. The mean reduction in direct and diffuse radiation reaching surface amount to 109.2 ± 49.4 and 66.8 ± 33.3 W/m2, respectively. Aerosols significantly alter the vertical profile of solar heating, with great implications for atmospheric stability and dynamics within the lower troposphere.