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Abstract. In the frame of the EMEP/ACTRIS/COLOSSAL campaign in Milan during winter 2018, equivalent black carbon measurements using the Aethalometer 31 (AE31), the Aethalometer 33 (AE33), and the Multi-Angle Absorption Photometer (MAAP) were carried out together with levoglucosan analyses on 12-h resolved PM2.5 samples collected in parallel. From AE31 and AE33 data, the loading-corrected aerosol attenuation coefficients (bATN) were calculated at 7 wavelengths (λs, where λ = 370, 470, 520, 590, 660, 880, 950 nm). Aerosol absorption coefficient at 637 nm (babs_MAAP) was determined by MAAP measurements. Furthermore, babs was also measured at 4 wavelengths (405, 532, 635, 780 nm) on the 12-h resolved PM2.5 samples by a polar photometer (PP_UniMI). After comparing PP_UniMI and MAAP results, we exploited PP_UniMI data to evaluate the filter multiple-scattering enhancement parameter at different wavelengths for AE31 and AE33. We obtained instrument- and wavelength-dependent multiple-scattering parameters by linear regression of the Aethalometer bATN against the babs measured by PP_UniMI. We found significant filter material, and hence instrumental, dependence of the multiple-scattering enhancement parameter with the difference up to 30 % between the AE31 and the AE33 tapes. The wavelength dependence and day/night variations were small – the difference between the smallest and largest value was up to 6 %. Data from the different instruments were used as input to the so-called “Aethalometer model” for optical source apportionment and instrument-dependence of the results was investigated. Inconsistencies among the source apportionment were found fixing the AE31 and AE33 multiple-scattering enhancement parameters to their usual values. Opposite, optimised multiple-scattering enhancement parameters led to 5 % agreement among the approaches. Also, the component-apportionment “MWAA model” was applied to the dataset. It resulted less sensitive to the instrument and the number of wavelengths, whereas significant differences in the determination of the absorption Ångström exponent for brown carbon were found (up to 22 %).

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