The fog and aerosol size distribution measured during the FAIRARI campaign, Po valley, Italy, February – April 2022
Almuth Neuberger, Lea Haberstock, Ilona Riipinen, Paul Zieger
The data set provides aerosol and fog droplet size distribution measured during the Fog and Aerosol InteRAction Research Italy (FAIRARI) campaign 2021/2022 which took place from 8 February to 4 April 2022 at San Pietro Capofiume, northern Italy. Observational data on aerosol and fog droplet size distributions is important for improving e.g. visibility forecasting, for radiative transfer calculations, and understanding climate impacts. Here, in-situ data using an optical method based on single-particle detection is presented.
AtmosphereCloudsaerosolscloudsfogFAIRARIPo-valleyaerosol-cloud-interactionGFAS
Download dataName
Version
Citation
References
Neuberger A, Ranjan R, Ding H, Mattsson F, Haberstock L, Baumgardner D, Decesari S, Ekman AML, Hughes DD, Mohr C, Paglione M, Riipinen I, Rinaldi M, Zieger P (2025) Importance of hydrated aerosol particles for aerosol-fog relationships in the Italian Po Valley. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5419
Neuberger A, Decesari S, Aktypis A, Andersen H, Baumgardner D, Bianchi F, Busetto M, Cai J, Cermak J, Dipu S, Ekman A, Fuzzi S, Gramlich Y, Haslett SL, Heikkinen L, Joutsensaari J, Kaltsonoudis C, Kangasluoma J, Krejci R, Lupi A, Marinoni A, Matrali A, Mattsson F, Mohr C, Nenes A, Paglione M, Pandis SN, Patel A, Riipinen I, Rinaldi M, Steimer SS, Stolzenburg D, Sulo J, Vasilakopoulou CN, Zieger P (2025) From Molecules to Droplets: The Fog and Aerosol Interaction Research Italy (FAIRARI) 2021/22 Campaign. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 106:E23–E50. https://doi.org/10.1175/bams-d-23-0166.1
Neuberger A, Decesari S, Aktypis A, Andersen H, Baumgardner D, Bianchi F, Busetto M, Cai J, Cermak J, Dipu S, Ekman A, Fuzzi S, Gramlich Y, Haslett SL, Heikkinen L, Joutsensaari J, Kaltsonoudis C, Kangasluoma J, Krejci R, Lupi A, Marinoni A, Matrali A, Mattsson F, Mohr C, Nenes A, Paglione M, Pandis SN, Patel A, Riipinen I, Rinaldi M, Steimer SS, Stolzenburg D, Sulo J, Vasilakopoulou CN, Zieger P (2025) From Molecules to Droplets: The Fog and Aerosol Interaction Research Italy (FAIRARI) 2021/22 Campaign. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 106:E23–E50. https://doi.org/10.1175/bams-d-23-0166.1
Spiegel JK, Zieger P, Bukowiecki N, Hammer E, Weingartner E, Eugster W (2012) Evaluating the capabilities and uncertainties of droplet measurements for the fog droplet spectrometer (FM-100). Atmospheric Measurement Techniques 5:2237–2260. https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-5-2237-2012
Data description
fairari-2021-2022-droplet-size-1.csv
Comma-separated values file with the following content at a 1-min time resolution:
DatetimeDate and time given in 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' (in UTC)[...]185 columns named after the upper bin limit (in m), containing particle number concentration in the different size bins normalized by the log bin width (dN/dlogD)Nconc_2Integrated number concentration of particles larger than 2 μm (particles/cm³)ED_2Effective diameter of particles larger than 2 μm (μm)LWC_2Liquid water content of particles larger than 2 μm (g/m³).
The GFAS measured the ambient particle size distribution in the range between 0.05 and 72 μm (optical diameter). Data were corrected for sampling losses according to Spiegel et al. (2012). More details on the data handling and set-up can be found in Neuberger et al. (2026).
Comments
Instrument
The aerosol and fog droplet size distribution were measured in ambient air by the Ground-based Fog and Aerosol Spectrometer (GFAS, Droplet Measurement Technologies, DMT, USA). The GFAS was located on the roof of the SU aerosol-cloud container at a height of approx. 3.7 above ground. It is a single-particle light scattering device and, apart from size distribution, also measures the polarization ratio of the backscattering signal. More technical details are given by Haberstock et al. (2026, in prep.).
FAIRARI campaign
The data set is part of a collection of data sets from The fog and aerosol interaction research Italy (FAIRARI) campaign, November 2021 to May 2022 (see Neuberger at al. 2025).
San Pietro Capofiume is located 30 km north-east of the city of Bologna, Italy, in a rural area.
Coordinates: 44.65° N, 11.62° E.
Please consult and cite Neuberger et al. (2025) or Neuberger et al. (2026) when using the data.
Associated data sets
The current data set is part of a collection of data sets from The fog and aerosol interaction research Italy (FAIRARI) campaign, November 2021 to May 2022.
Project
European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (project FORCeS under grant agreement No 821205); European Research Council (Consolidator grant INTEGRATE No 865799); Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (grant numbers 2021.0169 and 2021.0298).
Publisher
Bolin Centre Database
License
Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) v1.0
First name
Paul
Last name or organisation
Zieger
Email address
Address
Department of Environmental Science; Stockholm University
Postal code
SE-106 91
City
Stockholm
Province or state
Stockholm
Country
Sweden
GCMD science keyword
Earth science
GCMD location
Continent > Europe > Southern Europe > Italy
Dataset language
English
Begin date
2022-11-02
End date
2022-03-30