The physical and optical properties of an atmospheric aerosol mixture depend on a number of factors. The relative humidity influences the size of hydroscopic particles and the effective radius of an aerosol mixture. In consequence, values of the aerosol extinction, the aerosol optical thickness and theÅngström coefficient are modified. A similar effect is observed when the aerosol composition changes. A higher content of small aerosol particles causes the effective radius of an aerosol mixture to decrease and theÅngström coefficient to increase. Both effects are analysed in this paper. The parameters of the size distribution and the type of components used to represent natural atmospheric aerosol mixtures are based on experimental data. The main components are sea-salts (SSA), anthropogenic salts (WS, e.g. NH 4 HSO 4 , NH 4 NO 3 , (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4