Factor uncertainty analysis helps us understand the impacts of factors on complex systems. Traditional methods have many limitations. This study introduces a new method to measure how each factor contributes to uncertainty. It gains insights into the role of each variable and works for all multi-factor systems. As an application, we analyzed how aerosols affect solar radiation and identified the key factors. These analyses can improve our understanding of the role of aerosols in climate change.

Understanding aerosol size distribution helps us predict how aerosols move, grow, and interact with the environment and climate. We used "maximum entropy" to demonstrate that the aerosol particle number size distribution would follow the Weibull distribution in the clean atmosphere during the new particle formation and growth process. The observations showed good consistency with the theoretical analysis.

Using observational data from Japan’s geostationary satellite – Himawari-8 , this study improved how we track air pollution (aerosols) across East Asia and the Western Pacific. By applying an advanced aerosol retrieval algorithm called GRASP, we were able to more accurately observe both atmospheric and ground conditions and their dynamics over time. The results closely matched ground-based measurements and showed potential for even better monitoring when combined with ground-based lidar data.

Marine aerosols play a critical role in weather and climate, and their real part of the refractive index (RRI) is a key factor in their radiative effects. We present a study of RRI measurements using optical tweezer technology and find that the calculated results of RRI using the traditional method disagree with the measurements. A parameterization of the RRI and relative humidity relationship is proposed, and it will improve the radiation calculation in numerical models.

This study provides direct observational evidence that secondary organic aerosols have substantially higher real refractive indices than primary organic aerosols, challenging current model assumptions and offering recommended values that improve the accuracy of aerosol radiative effect simulations.