Improved visibility reporting using aerosol concentration measurements

Visibility range and resolution capability can be extended beyond that of standard transmissometers by quantifying the number concentration of ambient aerosols. Briefly, aerosol concentrations measured by PM 2.5 and PM 10 particle counters were ingested into an atmospheric radiative transfer model to derive particle concentration-based visibilities. The approach is evaluated across diverse U.S. environments and compared to transmissometers, extinction measurements, and human-eye-based observations, demonstrating the potential for incorporating aerosol-derived, higher-fidelity visibility into METAR observations, thus extending such reports’ utility beyond aviation. This paper demonstrates that particle concentration-based visibility quantifications permit aerosol effects such as extinction at 550 nm to be accurately encoded in METAR reports at visibilities as high as 160 km.