Abstract: An operation to measure the surface solar radiant flux and meteorological elements was done from April to September 2001 at the southeast of Tengger Desert.The main purpose was to study the effect of aerosols on attenuation of solar flux and to retrieve the atmospheric turbidity based on the surface solar flux dataset.It was noted that under clear weather,aerosols tend to attenuate the direct solar flux by 47.0%~2.6%,the average was about 16.9%;under dusty weather,aerosols tend to attenuate the direct solar flux by 90%~10%,the average was about 38%.As to the retrieved mean turbidity for broadband(300~4 000 nm) flux,i.e.the optical depth of dust aerosols,it was 0.048~0.631 in clear weather,the average was about 0.260;it was 0.177~2.475 in dusty weather,the average was about 0.741.

Key words: Tengger Desert, sand-dust aerosol, solar radiation, atmospheric turbidity