The campaign on atmospheric aerosol research network of China: CARE-China

Based on a network of field stations belonging to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Campaign onAtmospheric Aerosol Research network of China (CARE-China) was recently established as the country's firstmonitoring network for the study of the spatiotemporal distribution of aerosol physical characteristics, chemicalcomponents, and optical properties, as well as aerosol gaseous precursors. The network comprises 36 stations in totaland adopts a unified approach in terms of the instrumentation, experimental standards, and data specifications. Thisongoing project is intended to provide an integrated research platform to monitor online PM_2.5 concentrations, nine-sizeaerosol concentrations and chemical component distributions, nine-size secondary organic aerosol (SOA) componentdistributions, gaseous precursor concentrations (including SO₂, NO_x, CO, O₃, and VOCs), and aerosol opticalproperties. The data will be used to identify the sources of regional aerosols, the relative contributions from nature andanthropogenic emissions, the formation of secondary aerosols, and the effects of aerosol component distributions onaerosol optical properties. The results will reduce the levels of uncertainty involved in the quantitative assessment ofaerosol effects on regional climate and environmental changes and ultimately provide insight into how to mitigateanthropogenic aerosol emissions in China. The present paper provides a detailed description of the instrumentation,methodologies, and experimental procedures used across the network, as well as a case study of observations taken fromone station and the distribution of main components of aerosol over China during 2012.