In spite of being located at the heart of the highest mountain range in the world, the Himalayan Nepal Climate Observatory (5079 m a.s.l.) at the Ev-K2-CNR Pyramid is shown to be affected by the advection of pollution aerosols from the populated regions of southern Nepal and the Indo-Gangetic plains. Such an impact is observed along most of the period April 2006–March 2007 addressed here, with a minimum in the monsoon season. Backtrajectoryanalysis indicates long-range transport episodes occurring in this year to originate mainly in the west Asian deserts. At this high altitude site, the measured aerosol optical depth is observed to be about one order of magnitude lower than the one measured at Ghandi College (60 m a.s.l.), in the IndoGangetic basin. As for Ghandi College, and in agreement with the in situ ground observations at the Pyramid, the fine mode aerosol optical depth maximizes during winter and minimizes in the monsoon season. Conversely, total optical depth maximizes during the monsoon due to the occurrence of elevated, coarse particle layers. Possible origins of these particles are wind erosion from the surrounding peaks and hydrated/cloud-processed aerosols. Assessment of the aerosol radiative forcing is then expected to be hampered by the presence of these high altitude particle layers, which impede an effective, continuous measurement of anthropogenic aerosol radiative properties from sky radiance inversions and/or ground measurements alone. Even though the retrieved absorption coefficients of pollution aerosols were rather large (single scattering albedo of the order of 0.6–0.9 were observed in the month of April 2006), the corresponding low optical depths (0.03 at 500 nm) are expected to limit the relevant radiative forcing. Still, the high specific forcing of this aerosol and its capability of altering snow surface albedo provide good reasons for continuous monitoring.

High altitude mountaintop observatories provide the opportunity to study aerosol properties in the free troposphere without the added expense and difficulty of making airborne measurements. Over the last several decades the number of mountaintop observatories continuously measuring in-situ aerosol radiative properties has increased significantly from a single station (Mauna Loa, USA) in the 1970's to at least ten observatories actively making these measurements today. By taking this data set as a whole and developing a self-consistent climatology, the combined observatory measurements of free tropospheric aerosol radiative properties have the potential to contribute to aerosol-climate research in a way that far exceeds the contribution from individual observatories. For example, this type of analysis may help constrain chemical transport models, validate satellite measurements, and quantify the influence of smoke and dust episodes on free troposphere aerosol properties. Here we present statistics of means, variability, and trends of aerosol radiative properties, including light scattering, light absorption, light extinction, single scattering albedo, Ångström exponent, hemispheric backscatter fraction and radiative forcing efficiency, from various high altitude measurements. These climatologies utilize data from ten mountaintop observatories in the 20-50ºN latitude band: Mauna Loa, USA; Lulin Mountain, Taiwan; Pyramid, Nepal; Izaña, Spain; Mount Waliguan, China; Beo Moussala, Bulgaria; Mount Bachelor, USA; Monte Cimone, Italy; Jungfraujoch, Switzerland; Whistler Mountain, Canada. Results are also included from two multi-year, in-situ aerosol vertical profiling programs: Southern Great Plains, USA and Bondville, USA. Using this cloud- and boundary layer contamination- screened data set we address the following questions: (1) What are the similarities and differences in the means, variability and trends of free-tropospheric aerosol radiative properties at a wide range of locations? (2) What is the relative importance of aerosol amount and aerosol optical properties for direct radiative forcing calculations? Delene and Ogren (2002) showed that the amount of aerosol was of primary importance while the aerosol optical properties were of secondary importance to direct radiative forcing calculations for the four boundary layer sites they studied. (3) How do these in-situ climatologies of free tropospheric light extinction compare to the satellite-derived climatologies presented by Kent et al., 1998? (4) Do aerosol events (e.g., smoke transport) have a significant influence on climatological values?