Comment on 'Do aerosols impact ground observation of total cloud cover over the North China Plain?'

摘要

We further test the hypothesis suggested by Sun et al. (Sun et al., 2014). Recognizing the problems caused by the area-averaging calculation method, we focus on the analysis of individual observations over the North China Plain (NCP) and a larger area where aerosol loading acts as the main contributor to the difference between satellite and ground observations of total cloud cover (Delta TCC). We show that as aerosol loading increases, the occurrence frequencies of Delta TCC> 12.5 % increase at first and then decrease at heavy aerosol loading conditions. There is a significant linear relationship between the cumulative frequency of Delta TCC> 12.5 % and aerosol loading for both the increasing and decreasing trends. Therefore, a two-phase relationship between Delta TCCs and aerosol loading is confirmed. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.