Articles | Volume 19, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-899-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-899-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
09 Feb 2026
Research article |
| 09 Feb 2026
| 09 Feb 2026
A new method for estimating cloud optical depth from photovoltaic power measurements
William Wandji Nyamsi
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Finnish Meteorological Institute, Meteorological Research, 00560 Helsinki, Finland
Anders V. Lindfors
Finnish Meteorological Institute, Meteorological Research, 00560 Helsinki, Finland
Angela Meyer
Geosciences and Remote Sensing, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands
School of Engineering and Computer Science, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Biel, Switzerland
Antti Lipponen
Finnish Meteorological Institute, Atmospheric Research Centre of Eastern Finland, 70211 Kuopio, Finland
Antti Arola
Finnish Meteorological Institute, Atmospheric Research Centre of Eastern Finland, 70211 Kuopio, Finland
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Worldwide reconstructed historical aerosol load reveals that during the period of: 1900–1959: the atmosphere became cleaner in most European cities; 1960–1985: anthropogenic aerosols were responsible for the dimming phenomenon in Europe. AOD increased over Southeast Brazil and decreased noticeably over Japan while a small negative trend was found over Oceania; 1986–2015: generally, the atmosphere has become much cleaner everywhere after the reversal trend around 1980s mainly observed in Europe.
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The McClear service provides estimates of surface solar irradiances in cloud-free conditions. By comparing McClear estimates to 1 min measurements performed in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Maldives Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, McClear accurately estimates global irradiance and tends to overestimate direct irrradiance. This work establishes a general overview of the performance of the McClear service.
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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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Worldwide reconstructed historical aerosol load reveals that during the period of: 1900–1959: the atmosphere became cleaner in most European cities; 1960–1985: anthropogenic aerosols were responsible for the dimming phenomenon in Europe. AOD increased over Southeast Brazil and decreased noticeably over Japan while a small negative trend was found over Oceania; 1986–2015: generally, the atmosphere has become much cleaner everywhere after the reversal trend around 1980s mainly observed in Europe.
Antti Kukkurainen, Antti Mikkonen, Antti Arola, Antti Lipponen, Ville Kolehmainen, and Neus Sabater
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 7529–7544, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-7529-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-7529-2025, 2025
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HAPI2LIBIS is a new software tool that enhances the capabilities of the radiative transfer model libRadtran. It simplifies high-wavelength-resolution simulations by using up-to-date molecular data from the HITRAN (High-Resolution Transmission Molecular Absorption) database and streamlining computations. This tool helps researchers analyze how gases interact with radiation in the Earth's atmosphere and at the surface, improving atmospheric studies and satellite observations and making detailed modeling more accurate and accessible.
Andrea Porcheddu, Ville Kolehmainen, Timo Lähivaara, and Antti Lipponen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 4771–4789, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-4771-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-4771-2025, 2025
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Vishnu Nair, Edward Gryspeerdt, Antti Arola, Antti Lipponen, and Timo Virtanen
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4272, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4272, 2025
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This work investigates how surface winds affect cloud properties via driving sea salt aerosols, and evaporating water from the ocean surface. Current studies consider snapshots from satellites; here we use observations of evolving clouds which captures feedbacks due to time-dependent adjustments of clouds to aerosol increases. We show that even though sea salt changes droplet sizes, the evaporation from the ocean surface has a stronger impact on cloud properties, hiding the real aerosol effect.
Oskari Rockas, Pia Isolähteenmäki, Marko Laine, Anders V. Lindfors, Karoliina Hämäläinen, and Anton Laakso
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1745, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1745, 2025
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Timo H. Virtanen, Anu-Maija Sundström, Elli Suhonen, Antti Lipponen, Antti Arola, Christopher O'Dell, Robert R. Nelson, and Hannakaisa Lindqvist
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 929–952, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-929-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-929-2025, 2025
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Harri Kokkola, Juha Tonttila, Silvia M. Calderón, Sami Romakkaniemi, Antti Lipponen, Aapo Peräkorpi, Tero Mielonen, Edward Gryspeerdt, Timo Henrik Virtanen, Pekka Kolmonen, and Antti Arola
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Our results show that the global model is stable and it provides meaningful results. This way we can include a physics-based presentation of sub-grid physics (physics which happens on a 100 m scale) in the global model, whose resolution is on a 100 km scale.
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To be able to meet global grand challenges, we need comprehensive open data with proper metadata. In this opinion paper, we describe the SMEAR (Station for Measuring Earth surface – Atmosphere Relations) concept and include several examples (cases), such as new particle formation and growth, feedback loops and the effect of COVID-19, and what has been learned from these investigations. The future needs and the potential of comprehensive observations of the environment are summarized.
William Wandji Nyamsi, Yves-Marie Saint-Drenan, Antti Arola, and Lucien Wald
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2001–2036, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2001-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2001-2023, 2023
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The McClear service provides estimates of surface solar irradiances in cloud-free conditions. By comparing McClear estimates to 1 min measurements performed in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Maldives Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, McClear accurately estimates global irradiance and tends to overestimate direct irrradiance. This work establishes a general overview of the performance of the McClear service.
Tuuli Miinalainen, Harri Kokkola, Antti Lipponen, Antti-Pekka Hyvärinen, Vijay Kumar Soni, Kari E. J. Lehtinen, and Thomas Kühn
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We simulated the effects of aerosol emission mitigation on both global and regional radiative forcing and city-level air quality with a global-scale climate model. We used a machine learning downscaling approach to bias-correct the PM2.5 values obtained from the global model for the Indian megacity New Delhi. Our results indicate that aerosol mitigation could result in both improved air quality and less radiative heating for India.
Chao Yan, Yicheng Shen, Dominik Stolzenburg, Lubna Dada, Ximeng Qi, Simo Hakala, Anu-Maija Sundström, Yishuo Guo, Antti Lipponen, Tom V. Kokkonen, Jenni Kontkanen, Runlong Cai, Jing Cai, Tommy Chan, Liangduo Chen, Biwu Chu, Chenjuan Deng, Wei Du, Xiaolong Fan, Xu-Cheng He, Juha Kangasluoma, Joni Kujansuu, Mona Kurppa, Chang Li, Yiran Li, Zhuohui Lin, Yiliang Liu, Yuliang Liu, Yiqun Lu, Wei Nie, Jouni Pulliainen, Xiaohui Qiao, Yonghong Wang, Yifan Wen, Ye Wu, Gan Yang, Lei Yao, Rujing Yin, Gen Zhang, Shaojun Zhang, Feixue Zheng, Ying Zhou, Antti Arola, Johanna Tamminen, Pauli Paasonen, Yele Sun, Lin Wang, Neil M. Donahue, Yongchun Liu, Federico Bianchi, Kaspar R. Daellenbach, Douglas R. Worsnop, Veli-Matti Kerminen, Tuukka Petäjä, Aijun Ding, Jingkun Jiang, and Markku Kulmala
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12207–12220, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12207-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12207-2022, 2022
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Atmospheric new particle formation (NPF) is a dominant source of atmospheric ultrafine particles. In urban environments, traffic emissions are a major source of primary pollutants, but their contribution to NPF remains under debate. During the COVID-19 lockdown, traffic emissions were significantly reduced, providing a unique chance to examine their relevance to NPF. Based on our comprehensive measurements, we demonstrate that traffic emissions alone are not able to explain the NPF in Beijing.
Jaakko Ahola, Tomi Raatikainen, Muzaffer Ege Alper, Jukka-Pekka Keskinen, Harri Kokkola, Antti Kukkurainen, Antti Lipponen, Jia Liu, Kalle Nordling, Antti-Ilari Partanen, Sami Romakkaniemi, Petri Räisänen, Juha Tonttila, and Hannele Korhonen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 4523–4537, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4523-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4523-2022, 2022
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Clouds are important for the climate, and cloud droplets have a significant role in cloud properties. Cloud droplets form when air rises and cools and water vapour condenses on small particles that can be natural or of anthropogenic origin. Currently, the updraft velocity, meaning how fast the air rises, is poorly represented in global climate models. In our study, we show three methods that will improve the depiction of updraft velocity and which properties are vital to updrafts.
Antti Lipponen, Jaakko Reinvall, Arttu Väisänen, Henri Taskinen, Timo Lähivaara, Larisa Sogacheva, Pekka Kolmonen, Kari Lehtinen, Antti Arola, and Ville Kolehmainen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 895–914, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-895-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-895-2022, 2022
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We have developed a machine-learning-based model that can be used to correct the Sentinel-3 satellite-based aerosol parameter data of the Synergy data product. The strength of the model is that the original satellite data processing does not have to be carried out again but the correction can be carried out with the data already available. We show that the correction significantly improves the accuracy of the satellite aerosol parameters.
Anu Kauppi, Antti Kukkurainen, Antti Lipponen, Marko Laine, Antti Arola, Hannakaisa Lindqvist, and Johanna Tamminen
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2021-328, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2021-328, 2021
Revised manuscript not accepted
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We present a methodology in Bayesian framework for retrieving atmospheric aerosol optical depth and aerosol type from the pre-computed look-up tables (LUTs). Especially, we consider Bayesian model averaging and uncertainty originating from aerosol model selection and imperfect forward modelling. Our aim is to get more realistic uncertainty estimates. We have applied the methodology to TROPOMI/S5P satellite observations and evaluated the results against ground-based data from the AERONET.
Xiaoxia Shang, Tero Mielonen, Antti Lipponen, Elina Giannakaki, Ari Leskinen, Virginie Buchard, Anton S. Darmenov, Antti Kukkurainen, Antti Arola, Ewan O'Connor, Anne Hirsikko, and Mika Komppula
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 6159–6179, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6159-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6159-2021, 2021
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The long-range-transported smoke particles from a Canadian wildfire event were observed with a multi-wavelength Raman polarization lidar and a ceilometer over Kuopio, Finland, in June 2019. The optical properties and the mass concentration estimations were reported for such aged smoke aerosols over northern Europe.
Kevin Lamy, Thierry Portafaix, Colette Brogniez, Kaisa Lakkala, Mikko R. A. Pitkänen, Antti Arola, Jean-Baptiste Forestier, Vincent Amelie, Mohamed Abdoulwahab Toihir, and Solofoarisoa Rakotoniaina
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4275–4301, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4275-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4275-2021, 2021
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This paper is about the presentation of the UV-Indien measurement network. This network measures the ultraviolet radiation emitted by the Sun received at the Earth's surface and the clouding above each station. It has been deployed at several sites in the Indian Ocean region representing different environmental conditions. A description of the instruments and their calibration, maintenance, and data processing is presented in this paper along with a valuation of the data quality.
Antti Arola, William Wandji Nyamsi, Antti Lipponen, Stelios Kazadzis, Nickolay A. Krotkov, and Johanna Tamminen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 4947–4957, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4947-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4947-2021, 2021
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Methods to estimate surface UV radiation from satellite measurements offer the only means to obtain global coverage, and the development of satellite-based UV algorithms has been ongoing since the early 1990s. One of the main challenges in this development has been how to account for the overall effect of absorption by atmospheric aerosols. One such method was suggested roughly a decade ago, and in this study we propose further improvements for this kind of approach.
Antti Lipponen, Ville Kolehmainen, Pekka Kolmonen, Antti Kukkurainen, Tero Mielonen, Neus Sabater, Larisa Sogacheva, Timo H. Virtanen, and Antti Arola
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2981–2992, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2981-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2981-2021, 2021
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We have developed a new computational method to post-process-correct the satellite aerosol retrievals. The proposed method combines the conventional satellite aerosol retrievals relying on physics-based models and machine learning. The results show significantly improved accuracy in the aerosol data over the operational satellite data products. The correction can be applied to the existing satellite aerosol datasets with no need to fully reprocess the much larger original radiance data.
Nicola Zoppetti, Simone Ceccherini, Bruno Carli, Samuele Del Bianco, Marco Gai, Cecilia Tirelli, Flavio Barbara, Rossana Dragani, Antti Arola, Jukka Kujanpää, Jacob C. A. van Peet, Ronald van der A, and Ugo Cortesi
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2041–2053, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2041-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2041-2021, 2021
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The new platforms for Earth observation from space will provide an enormous amount of data that can be hard to exploit as a whole. The Complete Data Fusion algorithm can reduce the data volume while retaining the information of the full dataset. In this work, we applied the Complete Data Fusion algorithm to simulated ozone profiles, and the results show that the fused products are characterized by higher information content compared to individual L2 products.
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Short summary
This paper proposes a new, fast and accurate method for estimating the cloud optical depth (τc) from photovoltaic (PV) power measurements under overcast sky conditions. The method performs very well with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) products as inputs describing the state of the atmosphere. The method exhibits a better performance than published state-of-the-art methods when compared to ground and satellite-based τc retrievals serving as reference.
This paper proposes a new, fast and accurate method for estimating the cloud optical depth (τc)...
