A comparative study of aerosol microphysical properties retrieved from ground-based remote sensing and aircraft in situ measurements during a Saharan dust event
In this work we present an analysis of aerosol microphysical properties during a mineral dust event taking advantage of the combination of different state-of-the-art retrieval techniques applied to active and passive remote sensing measurements and the evaluation of some of those techniques using in...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2016-03-01
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| Series: | Atmospheric Measurement Techniques |
| Online Access: | http://www.atmos-meas-tech.net/9/1113/2016/amt-9-1113-2016.pdf |
| Summary: | In this work we present an analysis of aerosol microphysical properties
during a mineral dust event taking advantage of the combination of different
state-of-the-art retrieval techniques applied to active and passive remote
sensing measurements and the evaluation of some of those techniques using
independent data acquired from in situ aircraft measurements. Data were
collected in a field campaign performed during a mineral dust outbreak at
the Granada, Spain, experimental site (37.16° N,
3.61° W, 680 m a.s.l.) on 27 June 2011. Column-integrated
properties are provided by sun- and star-photometry, which allows for a
continuous evaluation of the mineral dust optical properties during both day
and nighttime. Both the linear estimation and AERONET (Aerosol Robotic
Network) inversion algorithms are applied for the retrieval of the
column-integrated microphysical particle properties. In addition,
vertically resolved microphysical properties are obtained from a
multi-wavelength Raman lidar system included in EARLINET (European Aerosol
Research Lidar Network), by using both LIRIC (Lidar Radiometer Inversion
Code) algorithm during daytime and an algorithm applied to the Raman
measurements based on the regularization technique during nighttime. LIRIC
retrievals reveal the presence of dust layers between 3 and 5 km a.s.l. with
volume concentrations of the coarse spheroid mode up to 60 µm<sup>3</sup> cm<sup>−3</sup>. The combined use of the regularization and LIRIC methods
reveals the night-to-day evolution of the vertical structure of the mineral
dust microphysical properties and offers complementary information to that
from column-integrated variables retrieved from passive remote sensing.
Additionally, lidar depolarization profiles and LIRIC retrieved volume
concentration are compared with aircraft in situ measurements. This study
presents for the first time a comparison of the total volume concentration
retrieved with LIRIC with independent in situ measurements, obtaining
agreement within the estimated uncertainties for both methods and quite good
agreement for the vertical distribution of the aerosol layers. Regarding the
depolarization, the first published data set of the CAS-POL for polarization
ratios is presented here and qualitatively compared with the lidar
technique. |
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| ISSN: | 1867-1381 1867-8548 |