Vertical resolved separation of aerosol types using CALIPSO level-2 product

Abstract

A lidar-based method was used to separate profiles of optical parameters due to different aerosol types over different European Aerosol Research LIdar NETwork (EARLINET) stations. The method makes uses of particle backscatter profiles at 532 nm and vertically resolved linear particle depolarization ratio measurements at the same wavelength. Values of particle depolarization ratio of 'pure' aerosol types (Saharan dust, biomass burning aerosols, anthropogenic aerosols, Volcanic ash aerosols) were taken from literature. Cases of CALIPSO space-borne lidar system were selected on the basis of different mixing state of the atmosphere over EARLINET stations. To identify the origin of air-masses four-day air mass back trajectories were computed using HYbrid Single-Particle Langrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model, for different arrival heights, for the location and time under study was used. Also, the Dust REgional Atmospheric Modeling (DREAM) model was used to identify cases where dust from Saharan region was affecting the place under study. For our analysis we have used Atmospheric Volume Description (AVD), Cloud-Aerosol Discrimination (CAD) and extinction Quality Control (QC) flags to screen out CALIOP data. The method was applied for different horizontal resolution of 5, 25, 45 and 105 km. The height-resolved lidar results were finally compared with column-integrated products obtained with Aerosol Robotic Network Sun photometer (AERONET) in order to see to what extent Sun photometer columnar data are representative when different aerosol layers are present in the atmosphere.