ARIADNE: THE GREEK LIDAR NETWORK
Alexandros Papayannis1, Dimitrios Balis2, Panayotis Kokkalis1, Rodelise Mamouri1, Georgios Tsaknakis1, Elina Giannakaki2,4, Nikos Siomos2, and Vassilis Amiridis3
1National Technical University of Athens, Laser Remote Sensing Unit, Zografou, Greece
2Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
3National Observatory of Athens, Institute for Space Applications and Remote Sensing, Palaia Penteli, Greece
4Finnish Meteorological Institute, P.O. Box 503, FI-00101 Helsinki, Finland
The Greek lidar network (ARIADNE) provides systematic measurements of ozone and aerosol profiles and particle characterization over urban, semi-urban and rural sites, over the Greek territory. Two main partners constitute ARIADNE: the Laser Remote Sensing Unit (LRSU) of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and the Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics (LAP) of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Both partners are equipped with elastic-Raman-DIAL lidar systems; LRSU is also equipped with a 532 nm elastic depolarization lidar, part of a mobile air pollution monitoring unit.
The retrieved vertical profiles in the troposphere (from near ground up to 10-18 km height) concern the tropospheric ozone mixing ratio and the aerosol optical properties (backscatter coefficient at 355-532-1064 nm, extinction coefficient at 355-532 nm, lidar ratio at 355-532 nm and the Ångström-related exponent at 355nm/532nm, 532nm/1064nm), the aerosol microphysical properties (mean/effective radius, mean refractive index, surface/volume density, single scattering albedo) and the water vapor mixing ratio.
As atmospheric aerosols play a crucial role in Earth’s radiation budget, the data collected by ARIADNE, in synergy with other platforms (ground-based and space-borne) will be used as input parameters in models, to estimate radiative transfer changes in climate models in vulnerable region of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Anne Emilia Hirsikko1, Ewan J. O´Connor1,2, Mika Komppula3, Matthias Bauer-Pfundstein4, Antti Poikonen1, Eleni Giannakaki3, Mikko Kurri1, Tomi Karppinen1, Heikki Lihavainen1, Ari
Laaksonen1, Kari E.J. Lehtinen3 and Yrjö Viisanen1
1Finnish Meteorological Institute, Research and Development, P.O. Box 503, FI-00101, Helsinki, Finland
2Meteorology Department, University of Reading, Reading, UK
3Finnish Meteorological Institute, P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211, Kuopio, Finland
4Meteorologische Messtechnik GmbH (METEK), Elmshorn, Germany
In order to monitor the dispersion of ash from forest fires and volcanic eruptions, and to investigate the dynamics of the atmospheric boundary layer and clouds, the Finnish Meteorological Institute has established a new network of remote sensing instruments in Finland. The network consists of a number of identical Doppler lidars, a Raman lidar, and a Doppler cloud radar accompanied by ceilometers, ancillary meteorological instruments and comprehensive aerosol measurements. The current network consists of three sites: Sodankylä (northern Finland), Kuopio (central Finland) and Helsinki (southern Finland). The Doppler lidars have not previously been deployed in harsh winter conditions, and therefore, our purpose was to examine the observation capability in low atmospheric aerosol concentrations, and the instrument reliability in temperatures below -20°C or during heavy snow. The low atmospheric aerosol concentrations encountered required modification of the averaging period to ensure sufficient data quality.
Based on our experience low ambient temperatures or a 10 cm layer of snow on top of the instrument did not disturb the lidar operation, due to effective built-in heating systems. We also compared the performance of three lidars side-by-side and observed reasonable agreement between the horizontal wind velocity components and the backscatter signal.
S2P-03
DEVELOPMENT OF AN ARGENTINEAN LIDAR NEWORK TO MONITOR THE VOLCANIC PLUME AND DUST IN PATAGONIA
Pablo R. Ristori1, Lidia A. Otero1,2, Ezequiel Pawelko1, Juan Pallotta1, Raúl D’Elía1,2, Fernando Chouza1, Francisco Gonzalez1, Juan Carlos Dworniczak1, Osvaldo Vilar1, Andrea Pereyra1,Martín
Fernández3, Sebastián Lema3, Nobuo Sugimoto4, Eduardo J. Quel1
1División Lidar, CEILAP, UNIDEF (MINDEF - CONICET), UMI-IFAECI-CNRS 3351, Juan Bautista de La Salle 4397 - B1603ALO Villa Martelli, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Rivadavia 1917 C1033AAJ CABA, Argentina
3Servicio Meteorológico Nacional. 25 de Mayo 658 - C1002ABN - CABA. Argentina
4National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba-City, Ibaraki, 305-8506 Japan A new multi-wavelength lidar network to monitor the presence of suspended aerosols in Argentina over Patagonian Airports affected by the Puyehue Cordón Caulle volcano is presented. These lidars are being developed by the lidar Division at CEILAP - Buenos Aires for the National Weather Service (NWS) who is in charge of the operation of these systems and the real time information to the airports, airlines, the Buenos Aires Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) and the general public of the actual conditions at the observation sites. Plume observations of the volcanic activity of Puyehue reaching Buenos Aires and evidence of volcanic ash lifted from the ground and transported to the first observational site at Bariloche are presented as well as the description of the new instrumentation being built at the lidar Division.
S2P-04
A MET OFFICE FORWARD OPERATOR FOR ATTENUATED BACKSCATTER Owen Cox and Cristina Charlton-Pérez
UK Meteorological Office @ Reading, Meteorology Building, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6BB The Met Office possesses a relatively dense network of ceilometers capable of reporting attenuated elastic backscatter and providing forecasters with more information on cloud and aerosol layers. This new source of observations could potentially be assimilated into the Met Office Unified Model (UM) to improve forecast accuracy. However, in order to implement these backscatter observations within the assimilation cycle, a forward operator is required to calculate synthetic observations which allow comparison of the model state with the observations. This work describes the methodology behind a recently developed forward operator, as well as outlining its potential uses and giving some overview of the Met Office’s ceilometer network. Size distributions are calculated from UM diagnostic fields at each level of the model, for a given location (coinciding with a ceilometer). Using refractive indices from literature, the extinction and backscatter can then be calculated from these distributions. These properties can then be used to calculate the attenuated backscatter which is observed by the single channel ceilometer instruments. At present the forward operator is designed to generate synthetic observations from aerosol and non-precipitating liquid clouds.
S2P-05
EVALUATING GLOBAL AEROSOL MASS TRANSPORT MODELING SKILL USING MPLNET LEVEL 2.0 PROFILES OF EXTINCTION COEFFICIENT
Ellsworth J. Welton1, James R. Campbell2, Jianglong Zhang3, Randall S. Johnson3, Santo V.
Salinas4, Boon Ning Chew4, Jeffrey S. Reid2, Joseph M. Prospero5
1NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 612, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
2 Naval Research Laboratory, Monterey, California 93940, USA
3Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA
4Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing, National University of Singapore, Singapore
5 Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmos. Sci., University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA
This poster describes a paradigm for evaluating analysis and forecast skill of a global aerosol mass transport model and its vertical profile of 550 nm aerosol extinction coefficient using Micro-Pulse Lidar Network (MPLNET) Level 2.0 datasets. The U.S. Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System (NAAPS) is a 1° x 1° global aerosol mass transport model used for computing 6-day forecasts of smoke, dust, sulfate, sea salt and SO2 mass concentration every 6 hr on twenty-four levels up to 100 hPa. Quality-assured MPLNET retrievals of 532 nm aerosol extinction coefficient are considered at Singapore and Barbados, solved at 75 m vertical resolution, and a Hanning window is used in order to score a weighted absolute and relative extinction coefficient error relative to distance of the lidar observation from a given model level. Spatial half-widths are set relative to the middle of a grid bin based on the width between successive model levels. Prospects for a cross-network validation scheme are discussed, as are the constraints of Level 1.5/2.0 processing systems relative to the expedience of data availability necessary for operational modeling systems.