Effect of Aerosol Vertical Distribution on the Modeling of Solar Radiation
, Kyriakoula Papachristopoulou 1,2,3, Emmanouil Proestakis 1, Vassilis Amiridis 1, Charalampos Kontoes 1 and Stelios Kazadzis 3Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
See the attached file.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
We thank anonymous reviewer#1 for his/her comments. Analytical replies are provided in the attached pdf file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
In the present study the authors aims to determine the magnitude of uncertainties and contribute towards the understanding of the complex interactions between aerosols and solar radiation caused by extinction coefficient profiles that are commonly used instead of measured profiles in radiative transfer modeling and that increase the uncertainties in the simulations.
In particular aims to define and study in the deep the following issues (as highlighted by the authors):
- How do changes in the vertical distribution of aerosol optical properties affect the solar radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface, and how do they affect the backscattered solar radiation?
- What is the magnitude of differences in the atmospheric heating rates due to changes in the vertical profile of the aerosols?
- How is the vertical distribution of actinic flux (AF), (i.e., the radiometric quantity that is of direct interest for photochemical reactions), affected by changes in the vertical profile of aerosols?
- What is the effect to the spectral solar radiation of different aerosol load and absorption properties for aerosols at different altitudes?
According to my knowledge on this topic, the article seems well written and is very detailed. The
method and approach to the problem are solid and well described. The figures and results encourage reading of this article and further work and studies on this specific topic. Despite this, the article is long and often focuses on some issues in a not very smooth way and lacks some focus. The figures, despite being well structured, are sometimes small. I suggest the publication of this article after major revisions (even if in reality they are very quick reviews and suggestions, in my opinion important, but not under methodological point of view)
- In general, the introduction is well written and guides the reader in the theme of this article very clearly. For greater completeness I suggested the authors to add marine aerosols in the description, also because this study is carried out on areas close to the Mediterranean Sea, and in general because marine aerosols have a strong impact on the atmosphere on all temperate scales.
In details from line 71 to 73 the authors can highlight the importance of the marine aerosol source, both on a local and global scale, from short-term to climatological scales. Their impact on the PBL and on the atmospheric circulation is very relevant, as shown in Rizza et al 2018, I suggest adding the citation for completeness.
Rizza, U.; Canepa, E.; Ricchi, A.; Bonaldo, D.; Carniel, S.; Morichetti, M.; Passerini, G.; Santiloni, L.; Scremin Puhales, F.; Miglietta, M.M. Influence of Wave State and Sea Spray on the Roughness Length: Feedback on Medicanes. Atmosphere 2018, 9, 301. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9080301
- Enlarge the size of the figures. The spaces between the panels are not optimized to the maximum, in particular from figure 8 to figure 16, the page allows you to enlarge the figures and obtain a better readability of the graphs.
- In the plots I suggest thickening the scale on the x axis, almost always at low resolution, also with respect to the variations in the values in the graph. Using narrower ranges (on x), the data and its variability are better represented.
- The conclusions are very extensive, and resemble a new presentation of the results. I suggest making the conclusions more "streamlined" by dividing them into points.
- In the conclusions I suggest the authors to highlight the fields of application of this work, future studies on this topic and the importance of these applications in the use of numerical models especially at a climatological scale, giving reasons (very briefly), in order to allow readers “to link” to this work to inspire new research and upgrade in this field of study.
Author Response
We thank anonymous reviewer#2 for his/her comments. Analytical replies are provided in the attached pdf file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
My compliments to a well-written and elaborate manuscript. I do have a couple of minor remarks, that I would like to be addressed:
* Could you provide WV amounts in g cm^-2 rather than in mm?
* L. 263-265: why is an AOD=1 used to simulate situations with high aerosol loads? Why not also higher AOD values?
* L. 386-389: it is stated that the reflectance by aerosols is more vertically at SZA=60 deg, but I would expect this to be dependent on the assymetry factor and thus the aerosol type. Can you add a couple of sentences discussing this?
Author Response
We thank anonymous reviewer#1 for his/her comments. Analytical replies are provided in the attached pdf file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Starting from the background of knowledge I have on these issues, I believe that the authors have implemented all the required changes, and adequately discussed the issues highlighted in the review phase. I believe the paper is ready for publication.
