scholarly journals Multi-wavelength Raman lidar observations of the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic cloud over Potenza, Southern Italy

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 12763-12803 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Mona ◽  
A. Amodeo ◽  
G. D'Amico ◽  
A. Giunta ◽  
F. Madonna ◽  
...  

Abstract. Multi-wavelength Raman lidar measurements were performed at CNR-IMAA Atmospheric Observatory (CIAO) during the entire Eyjafjallajökull explosive eruptive period in April–May 2010, whenever weather conditions permitted. A methodology for volcanic layer identification and accurate aerosol typing has been developed on the basis both of the multi-wavelength Raman lidar measurements and EARLINET measurements performed at CIAO since 2000. The aerosol mask for lidar measurements performed at CIAO during the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption has been obtained. Volcanic aerosol layers have been observed in different periods: 19–22 April, 27–29 April, 8–9 May, 13–14 May and 18–19 May. A maximum aerosol optical depth of about 0.12–0.13 was observed on 20 April, 22:00 UTC and 13 May, 20:30 UTC. Volcanic particles have been detected both at low altitudes, in the free troposphere and in the upper troposphere. Intrusions into the PBL have been revealed on 21–22 April and 13 May. In the April–May period Saharan dust intrusions typically occur in Southern Italy. For the period under investigations, a Saharan dust intrusion was observed on 13–14 May: dust and volcanic particles have been simultaneously observed at CIAO both at separated different levels and mixed within the same layer. Lidar ratios at 355 and 532 nm, Ångström exponent at 355/532 nm, backscatter related Ångström exponent at 532/1064 nm and particle linear depolarization ratio at 532 nm measured inside the detected volcanic layers have been discussed. The dependence of these quantities on relative humidity (RH) has been investigated by using co-located microwave profiler measurements. The particle linear depolarization ratio increasing with RH, lidar ratio values at 355 nm around 80 sr, and values of the ratio of lidar ratios greater than 1 suggest the presence of sulfates mixed with continental aerosol. Lower lidar ratio values (around 40 sr) increasing with RH and values of the ratio of lidar ratios lower than 1 indicate the presence of some aged ash inside these sulfate layers.

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 2229-2244 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Mona ◽  
A. Amodeo ◽  
G. D'Amico ◽  
A. Giunta ◽  
F. Madonna ◽  
...  

Abstract. During the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in April–May 2010 multi-wavelength Raman lidar measurements were performed at the CNR-IMAA Atmospheric Observatory (CIAO), whenever weather conditions permitted observations. A methodology both for volcanic layer identification and accurate aerosol typing has been developed. This methodology relies on the multi-wavelength Raman lidar measurements and the support of long-term lidar measurements performed at CIAO since 2000. The aerosol mask for lidar measurements performed at CIAO during the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption has been obtained. Volcanic aerosol layers were observed in different periods: 19–22 April, 27–29 April, 8–9 May, 13–14 May and 18–19 May. A maximum aerosol optical depth of about 0.12–0.13 was observed on 20 April, 22:00 UTC and 13 May, 20:30 UTC. Volcanic particles were detected at low altitudes, in the free troposphere and in the upper troposphere. Occurrences of volcanic particles within the PBL were detected on 21–22 April and 13 May. A Saharan dust event was observed on 13–14 May: dust and volcanic particles were simultaneously detected at CIAO at separated different altitudes as well as mixed within the same layer. Lidar ratios at 355 and 532 nm, the Ångström exponent at 355/532 nm, the backscatter-related Ångström exponent at 532/1064 nm and the particle linear depolarization ratio at 532 nm measured inside the detected volcanic layers are discussed. The dependence of these quantities on relative humidity has been investigated by using co-located microwave profiler measurements. The measured values of these intensive parameters indicate the presence of volcanic sulfates/continental mixed aerosol in the volcanic aerosol layers observed at CIAO. In correspondence of the maxima observed in the volcanic aerosol load on 19–20 April and 13 May, different values of intensive parameters were observed. Apart from the occurrence of sulfate aerosol, these values indicate also the presence of some ash which is affected by the aging during transport over Europe.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 8781-8793 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Mona ◽  
N. Papagiannopoulos ◽  
S. Basart ◽  
J. Baldasano ◽  
I. Binietoglou ◽  
...  

Abstract. In this paper, we report the first systematic comparison of 12-year modeled dust extinction profiles vs. Raman lidar measurements. We use the BSC-DREAM8b model, one of the most widely used dust regional models in the Mediterranean, and Potenza EARLINET lidar profiles for Saharan dust cases, the largest one-site database of dust extinction profiles. A total of 310 dust cases were compared for the May 2000–July 2012 period. The model reconstructs the measured layers well: profiles are correlated within 5% of significance for 60% of the cases and the dust layer center of mass as measured by lidar and modeled by BSC-DREAM8b differ on average 0.3 ± 1.0 km. Events with a dust optical depth lower than 0.1 account for 70% of uncorrelated profiles. Although there is good agreement in terms of profile shape and the order of magnitude of extinction values, the model overestimates the occurrence of dust layer top above 10 km. Comparison with extinction profiles measured by the Raman lidar shows that BSC-DREAM8b typically underestimates the dust extinction coefficient, in particular below 3 km. Lowest model–observation differences (below 17%) correspond to a lidar ratio at 532 nm and Ångström exponent at 355/532 nm of 60 ± 13 and 0.1 ± 0.6 sr, respectively. These are in agreement with values typically observed and modeled for pure desert dust. However, the highest differences (higher than 85%) are typically related to greater Ångström values (0.5 ± 0.6), denoting smaller particles. All these aspects indicate that the level of agreement decreases with an increase in mixing/modification processes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 893-905 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elina Giannakaki ◽  
Panos Kokkalis ◽  
Eleni Marinou ◽  
Nikolaos S. Bartsotas ◽  
Vassilis Amiridis ◽  
...  

Abstract. A new method, called ElEx (elastic extinction), is proposed for the estimation of extinction coefficient lidar profiles using only the information provided by the elastic and polarization channels of a lidar system. The method is applicable to lidar measurements both during daytime and nighttime under well-defined aerosol mixtures. ElEx uses the particle backscatter profiles at 532 nm and the vertically resolved particle linear depolarization ratio measurements at the same wavelength. The particle linear depolarization ratio and the lidar ratio values of pure aerosol types are also taken from literature. The total extinction profile is then estimated and compared well with Raman retrievals. In this study, ElEx was applied in an aerosol mixture of marine and dust particles at Finokalia station during the CHARADMExp campaign. Any difference between ElEx and Raman extinction profiles indicates that the nondust component could be probably attributed to polluted marine or polluted continental aerosols. Comparison with sun photometer aerosol optical depth observations is performed as well during daytime. Differences in the total aerosol optical depth are varying between 1.2 % and 72 %, and these differences are attributed to the limited ability of the lidar to correctly represent the aerosol optical properties in the near range due to the overlap problem.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiaoyun Hu ◽  
Haofei Wang ◽  
Philippe Goloub ◽  
Zhengqiang Li ◽  
Igor Veselovskii ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Taklamakan desert is an important dust source for the global atmospheric dust budget and a cause of the dust weather in Eastern Asia. The characterization of the properties and vertical distributions of Taklamakan dust in the source region is still very limited. To fill this gap, the DAO (Dust Aerosol Observation) was conducted in Kashi, China in 2019. Kashi site is about 150 km to the west rim of the Taklamakan desert and is strongly impacted by desert dust aerosols, especially in spring time, i.e. April and May. Apart from dust, fine particles coming from local anthropogenic emissions or/and transported aerosols are also a non-negligible aerosol component. In this study, we provide the first profiling of the 2α + 3β + 3δ lidar profiles of Taklamakan dust based on a multi-wavelength Raman polarization lidar. Four cases, including two Taklamakan dust events (Case 1 and 2) and two polluted dust events (Case 3 and 4) are presented. The lidar ratio in the Taklamakan dust outbreak is found to be 51 ± 8–56 ± 8 sr at 355 nm and 45 ± 7 sr at 532 nm. The particle linear depolarization ratios are about 0.28 ± 0.04–0.32 ± 0.05 at 355 nm, 0.35 ± 0.05 at 532 nm and 0.31 ± 0.05 at 1064 nm. The observed polluted dust is commonly featured with reduced particle linear depolarization ratio and enhanced extinction and backscatter Angstrom exponent. In Case 3, the lidar ratio of polluted dust is about 42 ± 6 sr at 355 nm and 40 ± 6 sr at 532 nm. The particles linear depolarization ratios decrease to about 0.25, with a weak spectral dependence. In Case 4, the variability of lidar ratio and particle linear depolarization ratio is higher than in Case 3, which reflects the complexity of the nature of mixed pollutant and the mixing state. The results provide the first reference for the characteristics of Taklamakan dust measured by Raman lidar. The data could contribute to complementing the dust model and improving the accuracy of climate modeling.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (14) ◽  
pp. 8909-8922 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Filioglou ◽  
Elina Giannakaki ◽  
John Backman ◽  
Jutta Kesti ◽  
Anne Hirsikko ◽  
...  

Abstract. One year of ground-based night-time Raman lidar observations has been analysed under the Optimization of Aerosol Seeding In rain enhancement Strategies (OASIS) project, in order to characterize the aerosol particle properties over a rural site in the United Arab Emirates. In total, 1130 aerosol particle layers were detected during the 1-year measurement campaign which took place between March 2018 and February 2019. Several subsequent aerosol layers could be observed simultaneously in the atmosphere up to 11 km. The observations indicate that the measurement site is a receptor of frequent dust events, but predominantly the dust is mixed with aerosols of anthropogenic and/or marine origin. The mean aerosol optical depth over the measurement site ranged at 0.37 ± 0.12 and 0.21 ± 0.11 for 355 and 532 nm, respectively. Moreover, mean lidar ratios of 43 ± 11 sr at a wavelength of 355 nm and 39 ± 10 sr at 532 nm were found. The average linear particle depolarization ratio measured over the course of the campaign was 15 ± 6 % and 19 ± 7 % at the 355 and 532 nm wavelengths, respectively. Since the region is both a source and a receptor of mineral dust, we have also explored the properties of Arabian mineral dust of the greater area of the United Arab of Emirates and the Arabian Peninsula. The observed Arabian dust particle properties were 45 ± 5 (42 ± 5) sr at 355 (532) nm for the lidar ratio, 25 ± 2 % (31 ± 2 %) for the linear particle depolarization ratio at 355 (532) nm, and 0.3 ± 0.2 (0.2 ± 0.2) for the extinction-related Ångström exponent (backscatter-related Ångström exponent) between 355 and 532 nm. This study is the first to report comprehensive optical properties of the Arabian dust particles based on 1-year long observations, using to their fullest the capabilities of a multi-wavelength Raman lidar instrument. The results suggest that the mineral dust properties over the Middle East and western Asia, including the observation site, are comparable to those of African mineral dust with regard to the particle depolarization ratios, but not for lidar ratios. The smaller lidar ratio values in this study compared to the reference studies are attributed to the difference in the geochemical characteristics of the soil originating in the study region compared to northern Africa.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moritz Haarig ◽  
Albert Ansmann ◽  
Ronny Engelmann ◽  
Holger Baars ◽  
Dietrich Althausen ◽  
...  

Abstract. Two Saharan dust layers observed over Leipzig in February and March 2021 were used to provide the first ever lidar measurements of the extinction coefficient at 1064 nm for desert dust. The advanced multiwavelength Raman polarization lidar was able to provide, for the first time, the lidar ratio (extinction-to-backscatter ratio) and particle linear depolarization ratio at all three classical lidar wavelengths (355, 532 and 1064 nm). The pure dust conditions during the first event exhibit lidar ratios of 47±8, 50±5 and 63±13 sr and particle linear depolarization ratios of 0.260±0.026, 0.298±0.017 and 0.214±0.025 at the wavelengths of 355, 532 and 1064 nm, respectively. The second, slightly polluted dust case shows a similar spectral behavior with values of the lidar ratio of 52±8, 47±5 and 61±10 sr and the depolarization ratio of 0.188±0.053, 0.270±0.017 and 0.242±0.007 at 355, 532 and 1064 nm, respectively. The results were compared to AERONET v3 inversions and GRASP retrievals at six and seven wavelengths, which could reproduce the spectral slope of the lidar ratio from 532 to 1064 nm. The spectral slope of the particle linear depolarization ratio could not be reproduced by the AERONET inversions, especially at 1064 nm.


2020 ◽  
Vol 237 ◽  
pp. 02036
Author(s):  
Moritz Haarig ◽  
Holger Baars ◽  
Albert Ansmann ◽  
Ronny Engelmann ◽  
Kevin Ohneiser ◽  
...  

Canadian wildfire smoke was detected in the troposphere and lower stratosphere over Europe in August and September 2017. Lidar measurements from various stations of the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET) observed the stratospheric smoke layer. Triple-wavelength (355, 532, and 1064 nm) lidar measurements of the depolarization and the lidar ratio are reported from Leipzig, Germany. The particle linear depolarization ratio of the wildfire smoke in the stratosphere had an exceptional strong wavelength dependence reaching from 0.22 at 355 nm, to 0.18 at 532 nm, and 0.04 at 1064 nm. The lidar ratio increased with wavelength from 40±16 sr at 355 nm, to 66±12 sr at 532 nm, and 92±27 sr at 1064 nm. The development of the stratospheric smoke plume over several months was studied by long-term lidar measurements in Cyprus. The stratospheric smoke layers increased in altitude up to 24 km height.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (23) ◽  
pp. 35237-35276
Author(s):  
E. Giannakaki ◽  
P. G. van Zyl ◽  
D. Müller ◽  
D. Balis ◽  
M. Komppula

Abstract. Optical and microphysical properties of different aerosol types over South Africa measured with a multi-wavelength polarization Raman lidar are presented. This study could assist in bridging existing gaps relating to aerosol properties over South Africa, since limited long-term data of this type is available for this region. The observations were performed under the framework of the EUCAARI campaign in Elandsfontein. The multi-wavelength PollyXT Raman lidar system was used to determine vertical profiles of the aerosol optical properties, i.e. extinction and backscatter coefficients, Ångström exponents, lidar ratio and depolarization ratio. The mean microphysical aerosol proper ties, i.e. effective radius and single scattering, albedo were retrieved with an advanced inversion algorithm. Clear differences were observed for the intensive optical properties of atmospheric layers of biomass burning and urban/industrial aerosols. Our results reveal a wide range of optical and microphysical parameters for biomass burning aerosols. This indicates probable mixing of biomass burning aerosols with desert dust particles, as well as the possible continuous influence of urban/industrial aerosol load in the region. The lidar ratio at 355 nm, the linear particle depolarization ratio at 355 nm and the extinction-related Ångström exponent from 355 to 532 nm were 52 ± 7 sr; 0.9 ± 0.4 % and 2.3 ± 0.5, respectively for urban/industrial aerosols, while these values were 92 ± 10 sr; 3.2 ± 1.3 %; 2.0 ± 0.4 respectively for biomass burning aerosols layers. Biomass burning particles are larger and slightly less absorbing compared to urban/industrial aerosols. The particle effective radius were found to be 0.10 ± 0.03, 0.17 ± 0.04 and 0.13 ± 0.03 μm for urban/industrial, biomass burning, and mixed biomass burning and desert dust aerosols, respectively, while the single scattering albedo at 532 nm were 0.87 ± 0.06, 0.90 ± 0.06, and 0.88 ± 0.07 (at 532 nm), respectively for these three types of aerosols. Our results were within the same range of previously reported values.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silke Groß ◽  
Josef Gasteiger ◽  
Volker Freudenthaler ◽  
Thomas Müller ◽  
Daniel Sauer ◽  
...  

Abstract. Dual-wavelength lidar measurements with the small lidar system POLIS of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München were performed during the SALTRACE experiment at Barbados in June and July 2013. Based on high accurate measurements of the linear depolarization ratio down to about 150–200 m above ground level, the dust volume fraction and the dust mass concentration within the Caribbean boundary layer can be derived. Additional information from radiosonde launches at the ground-based measurement site provide independent information of the boundary layer height and the meteorological situation within the boundary layer. We investigate the lidar derived optical properties, the lidar ratio and the particle linear depolarization ratio at 355 and 532 nm and find over all mean values and mean uncertainties of 0.04 ± 0.03 and 0.05 ± 0.04 at 355 and 532 nm, respectively, for the particle linear depolarization ratio, and 26 ± 5 sr for the lidar ratio at 355 and 532 nm. For the concentration of dust in the Caribbean boundary layer we find that most values are between 20 and 50 g/m3, and that on most days the dust contribution to total aerosol volume is about 30–40 %. Comparing the dust contribution to the columnintegrated sun-photometer measurements we see a correlation of high dust contribution, high total aerosol optical depth and a corresponding low Angström exponent, and of low dust contribution with low total aerosol optical depth and corresponding high Angström exponent. The relative humidity within the boundary layer was high with values around 80 % on most of the days.


2022 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 355-369
Author(s):  
Moritz Haarig ◽  
Albert Ansmann ◽  
Ronny Engelmann ◽  
Holger Baars ◽  
Carlos Toledano ◽  
...  

Abstract. Two layers of Saharan dust observed over Leipzig, Germany, in February and March 2021 were used to provide the first-ever lidar measurements of the dust lidar ratio (extinction-to-backscatter ratio) and linear depolarization ratio at all three classical lidar wavelengths (355, 532 and 1064 nm). The pure-dust conditions during the first event exhibit lidar ratios of 47 ± 8, 50 ± 5 and 69 ± 14 sr and particle linear depolarization ratios of 0.242 ± 0.024, 0.299 ± 0.018 and 0.206 ± 0.010 at wavelengths of 355, 532 and 1064 nm, respectively. The second, slightly polluted-dust case shows a similar spectral behavior of the lidar and depolarization ratio with values of the lidar ratio of 49 ± 4, 46 ± 5 and 57 ± 9 sr and the depolarization ratio of 0.174 ± 0.041, 0.298 ± 0.016 and 0.242 ± 0.007 at 355, 532 and 1064 nm, respectively. The results were compared with Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) version 3 (v3) inversion solutions and the Generalized Retrieval of Aerosol and Surface Properties (GRASP) at six and seven wavelengths. Both retrieval schemes make use of a spheroid shape model for mineral dust. The spectral slope of the lidar ratio from 532 to 1064 nm could be well reproduced by the AERONET and GRASP retrieval schemes. Higher lidar ratios in the UV were retrieved by AERONET and GRASP. The enhancement was probably caused by the influence of fine-mode pollution particles in the boundary layer which are included in the columnar photometer measurements. Significant differences between the measured and retrieved wavelength dependence of the particle linear depolarization ratio were found. The potential sources for these uncertainties are discussed.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document