Continuous lidar measurements of stratospheric aerosols and ozone after the Pinatubo eruption Part II: Time evolution of ozone profiles and of aerosol properties

1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (24) ◽  
pp. 2869-2872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfonso D‧Altorio ◽  
Fabrizio Masci ◽  
Vincenzo Rizi ◽  
Guido Visconti ◽  
Marco Verdecchia
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Gasteiger ◽  
Silke Groß ◽  
Bernadett Weinzierl ◽  
Daniel Sauer ◽  
Volker Freudenthaler

Abstract. Long-range transport of aerosol in the Saharan Air Layer (SAL) across the Atlantic plays an important role for weather, climate, and ocean fertilization. However, processes occurring within the SAL and their effects on aerosol properties are still unclear. In this work we study particle settling and convective mixing within the SAL based on measured and modeled vertical aerosol profiles in the upper 1 km of the transported SAL. We use ground-based POLIS lidar measurements and airborne particle counter measurements over the Western Atlantic, as well as space-based CALIOP lidar measurements from Africa to the Western Atlantic. In our model we take account of the optical properties and the Stokes gravitational settling of irregularly-shaped Saharan dust particles. We test two hypotheses about the occurrence of convective mixing within the SAL over the Atlantic to explain the aerosol properties observed by the lidars and the particle counter. Our first hypothesis (H1) assumes that no mixing occurs in the SAL leading to an altitude separation of super-micron dust particles as a result of settling. The second hypothesis (H2) assumes that convective mixing occurs in the SAL during the day allowing large super-micron dust particles to stay airborne longer than without convective mixing. In general, a decrease of the particle linear depolarization ratio towards the SAL top is found in the measured lidar data but the decrease is much weaker than modeled in case of H1. The in-situ data on particle number concentrations show a presence of large particles near the SAL top that is inconsistent with H1. Furthermore, the analysis of the CALIOP measurements reveals that the average vertical profile of the linear depolarization ratio of the aerosols in the upper 1 km of the SAL does not change along its transport path over the Atlantic. These findings indicate H2 to be much more likely than H1, giving evidence that convective mixing occurs within the SAL over the Atlantic with significant consequences for the evolution of the size distribution of the super-micron dust particles during transport.


2018 ◽  
Vol 176 ◽  
pp. 05033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolaos Siomos ◽  
Kalliopi A. Voudouri ◽  
Eleni Giannakaki ◽  
Vasilis Amiridis ◽  
Maria Filioglou ◽  
...  

In this study we present some first results on the potential of 15 years of lidar measurements over the lidar station of Thessaloniki to compile a climatology of the aerosol properties for the period 2001-2015. This is examined on a monthly, seasonal and annual basis. Both the profile structure and the columnar properties of the aerosol extinction and backscatter products are examined. The results are compared for consistency against co-located sunphotometer measurements.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 2799-2855 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. S. Dhomse ◽  
K. M. Emmerson ◽  
G. W. Mann ◽  
N. Bellouin ◽  
K. S. Carslaw ◽  
...  

Abstract. We have enhanced the capability of a microphysical aerosol-chemistry module to simulate the atmospheric aerosol and precursor gases for both tropospheric and stratospheric conditions. Using the Mount Pinatubo eruption (June 1991) as a test case, we evaluate simulated aerosol properties in a composition-climate model against a range of satellite and in-situ observations. Simulations are performed assuming an injection of 20 Tg SO2 at 19–27 km in tropical latitudes, without any radiative feedback from the simulated aerosol. In both quiescent and volcanically perturbed conditions, simulated aerosol properties in the lower stratosphere show reasonable agreement with the observations. The model captures the observed timing of the maximum aerosol optical depth (AOD) and its decay timescale in both tropics and Northern Hemisphere (NH) mid-latitudes. There is also good qualitative agreement with the observations in terms of spatial and temporal variation of the aerosol effective radius (Reff), which peaks 6–8 months after the eruption. However, the model shows significant biases against some observational data sets. Simulated AOD and Surface Area Density (SAD) in the tropics are substantially higher than the gap-filled satellite data products during the first 6 months after the eruption. The model shows consistently weaker enhancement in Reff compared to satellite and in-situ measurements. Simulated aerosol particle size distribution is also compared to NH mid-latitude in-situ balloon sounding measurements of size-resolved number concentrations. Before the eruption, the model captures the observed profiles of lower stratospheric particle number concentrations with radii larger than 5, 150 and 250 nm (N5, N150 and N250) very well. However, in the first 6 months after the eruption, the model shows high bias in N5 concentrations in the lower stratosphere, suggesting too strong nucleation. Following particle growth via condensation and coagulation, this bias in the finest particles propagates into a factor 2 high bias in N150. Our comparison suggests that new particle formation in the initial phase of large eruptions, and subsequent particle growth to optically-active sizes, might be playing an important role in determining the magnitude of the climate impacts from volcanoes like Pinatubo.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 18535-18579
Author(s):  
M. R. Perrone ◽  
F. De Tomasi ◽  
G. P. Gobbi

Abstract. A new approach is introduced to characterize the dependence on altitude of the aerosol fine mode radius (Rf) and of the fine mode contribution (η) to the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) by three-wavelength lidar measurements. The introduced approach is based on the graphical method of Gobbi et al. (2007), which was applied to AERONET spectral extinction observations and relies on the combined analysis of the Ångstrom exponent (å) and its spectral curvature Δå. Lidar measurements at 355, 532 and 1064 nm were used in this study to retrieve the vertical profiles of å and Δå and to determine the dependence on altitude of Rf and η (532 nm) from the å–Δå combined analysis. Lidar measurements were performed at the Mathematics and Physics Department of Universita' del Salento, in south eastern Italy. Aerosol from continental Europe, the Atlantic, northern Africa, and the Mediterranean Sea are often advected over south eastern Italy and as a consequence, mixed advection patterns leading to aerosol properties varying with altitude are dominant. The proposed approach was applied to eleven measurement days to demonstrate its feasibility in different aerosol load conditions. The selected-days were characterized by AOTs spanning the 0.23–0.67, 0.15–0.41, and 0.04–0.25 range at 355, 532, and 1064 nm, respectively. Lidar ratios varied within the 28–80, 30–70, and 30–55 sr range at 355, 532, and 1064 nm, respectively, for the high variability of the aerosol optical and microphysical properties. å(355 nm, 1064 nm) values retrieved from lidar measurements ranged between 0.12 and 2.5 with mean value ±1 standard deviation equal to 1.4 ± 0.5. Δå varied within the −0.10–0.87 range with mean value equal to 0.1 ± 0.4. Rf and η (532 nm) values spanning the 0.02–0.30 μm and the 0.30–0.99 range, respectively were associated to the å–Δå data points. Rf and η values showed no dependence on the altitude. 72% of the data points were in the Δå–å space delimited by the η and Rf curves varying within 0.70–0.95 and 0.15–0.05 μm, respectively for the dominance of fine mode particles in driving the AOT over south eastern Italy. Volume depolarization vertical profiles retrieved from lidar measurements, aerosol products from AERONET sunphotometer measurements collocated in space and time, the BSC-DREAM model, analytical back trajectories, and satellite images were used to demonstrate the robustness of the proposed method.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moritz Haarig ◽  
Adrian Walser ◽  
Albert Ansmann ◽  
Maximilian Dollner ◽  
Dietrich Althausen ◽  
...  

Abstract. The present study aims to validate lidar retrievals of cloud-relevant aerosol properties by using polarization lidar and coincident airborne in situ measurements in the Saharan Air Layer over the Barbados region. Vertical profiles of the number concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), large particles (diameter d > 500 nm), surface area, and ice nucleating particles (INP) are estimated from the lidar measurements and compared with CCN concentrations and the INP-relevant aerosol properties in situ measured with aircraft in the framework of the Saharan Aerosol Long-range Transport and Aerosol–Cloudinteraction Experiment (SALTRACE) in summer 2013. The CCN number concentrations derived from lidar observations were up to a factor of two higher than the ones measured in situ on board the research aircraft Falcon. However, a reasonable agreement was obtained when taking the lidar uncertainty into account. The number concentration of particles with dry radius > 250 nm and the surface area concentration obtained from the lidar observations and used as input for the INP parameterizations agreed well (


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 2207-2223 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Madonna ◽  
F. Amato ◽  
J. Vande Hey ◽  
G. Pappalardo

Abstract. Despite their differences from more advanced and more powerful lidars, the low construction and operation cost of ceilometers (originally designed for cloud base height monitoring) has fostered their use for the quantitative study of aerosol properties. The large number of ceilometers available worldwide represents a strong motivation to investigate both the extent to which they can be used to fill in the geographical gaps between advanced lidar stations and also how their continuous data flow can be linked to existing networks of the more advanced lidars, like EARLINET (European Aerosol Research Lidar Network). In this paper, multi-wavelength Raman lidar measurements are used to investigate the capability of ceilometers to provide reliable information about atmospheric aerosol properties through the INTERACT (INTERcomparison of Aerosol and Cloud Tracking) campaign carried out at the CNR-IMAA Atmospheric Observatory (760 m a.s.l., 40.60° N, 15.72° E), in the framework of the ACTRIS (Aerosol Clouds Trace gases Research InfraStructure) FP7 project. This work is the first time that three different commercial ceilometers with an advanced Raman lidar are compared over a period of 6 months. The comparison of the attenuated backscatter coefficient profiles from a multi-wavelength Raman lidar and three ceilometers (CHM15k, CS135s, CT25K) reveals differences due to the expected discrepancy in the signal to noise ratio (SNR) but also due to changes in the ambient temperature on the short and mid-term stability of ceilometer calibration. Therefore, technological improvements are needed to move ceilometers towards operational use in the monitoring of atmospheric aerosols in the low and free troposphere.


2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1189-1193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adolfo Comerón ◽  
Michaël Sicard ◽  
Francesc Rocadenbosch

Abstract Identification of aerosol layers on lidar measurements is of interest to determine ranges where aerosol properties are likely to be homogeneous and to infer transport phenomena and atmosphere dynamics. For instance, the range-corrected backscattered signal from aerosol measured with lidars has long been used as a proxy to determine the depth of the planetary boundary layer. The method relies on the assumption that in a well-mixed atmosphere, a rather homogenous aerosol distribution will exist within the boundary layer; hence, a sudden drop in the lidar range-corrected signal profile will mark the end of the layer. The most usual methods to detect that drop are the gradient method, which detects a negative maximum in the derivative with respect to range of the lidar range-corrected signal, or of its logarithm, and the wavelet correlation transform method, which detects a maximum in the correlation function of the lidar range-corrected signal and a wavelet, usually the Haar wavelet. These methods are not restricted to determining the boundary layer height but can also be used to locate the edges of lofted aerosol layers. Using fundamentals of linear system theory, this study shows the deep link existing between the gradient method and the wavelet correlation transform method using the Haar wavelet, the latter being equivalent to the gradient method applied to a range-corrected signal profile smoothed by a low-pass spatial filtering, which seems not to have been explicitly noted in the literature so far. Consequences are readily drawn for the wavelet correlation transform method using other wavelets.


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