Abstract:The characteristics of vertical distribution of aerosols are analyzed with the data observed by airborne instruments in three dust weather events in Beijing. The results show that the vertical distribution of dust particles is influenced by the thermal inversion layer. The spectral distribution is monotone decreasing; within the boundary layer, the diameters of particles for blowing sand, dust and sand storms are concentrated between 01 and 03 μm, while another peak of the size distribution for the blowing sand event is about 08 μm and 65 μm for the dust storm and 28 and 65 μm for the sand storm. The effective diameter of fine particles in the dust event is 4 to 10 times as big as particles from anthropogenic sources. During dust weather the whole particle spectrum width from the nearground layer decreased with height, with maximum at 3000 m, associated with air transportation. The particle distribution for the dust storm shows that in the surface layer, the number of concentration or spectral width in the particle spectrum of >50 μm was significantly higher than that of the dust storm and sandstorm, which was related the local high winds. The sandstorm alone reached the maximum spectrum width near the bottom of the clouds, which indicates that big particles were carried up to a certain height, associated with the upward movement of Mongolia cyclone structures.