Lidar measurements during Aerosols99

Kenneth J. Voss, Ellsworth J. Welton, Patricia K. Quinn, James Johnson, Anne M. Thompson, Howard R. Gordon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

49 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Aerosols99 cruise (January 14 to February 8, 1999) went between Norfolk, Virginia, and Cape Town, South Africa. A Micropulse lidar system was used almost continually during this cruise to profile the aerosol vertical structure. Inversions of this data illustrated a varying vertical structure depending on the dominant air mass. In clean maritime aerosols in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres the aerosols were capped at 1 km. When a dust event from Africa was encountered, the aerosol extinction increased its maximum height to above 2 km. During a period in which the air mass was dominated by biomass burning from southern Africa, the aerosol layer extended to 4 km. Comparisons of the aerosol optical depth (AOD) derived from lidar inversion and surface Sun photometers showed an agreement within ±0.05 RMS. Similar comparisons between the extinction measured with a nephelometer and particle soot absorption photometer (at 19 m altitude) and the lowest lidar measurement (75 m) showed good agreement (±0.014 km-1). The lidar underestimated surface extinction during periods when an elevated aerosol layer (total AOD > 0.10) was present over a relatively clean (aerosol extinction < 0.05 km-1) surface layer, but otherwise gave accurate results.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number2001JD900217
Pages (from-to)20821-20831
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres
Volume106
Issue numberD18
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 27 2001

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Geophysics
  • Forestry
  • Oceanography
  • Aquatic Science
  • Ecology
  • Water Science and Technology
  • Soil Science
  • Geochemistry and Petrology
  • Earth-Surface Processes
  • Atmospheric Science
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • Space and Planetary Science
  • Palaeontology

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