Characterization of atmospheric aerosols for a long range transport of biomass burning particles from Canadian forest fires over the southern Iberian Peninsula in July 2013

Abstract

espanolEste trabajo presenta la caracterizacion, durante un evento especial de transporte a gran distancia, de particulas de combustion de biomasa, procedentes de incendios forestales en Canada. El evento se detecto entre el 11 y el 17 de julio de 2013 en la estacion de EARLINET en Granada (37.16° N, 3.61° W, 680 snm), asi como en otras estaciones de EARLINET. Para su caracterizacion se han usado diferentes tecnicas, incluyendo activas/pasivas y terrestres/por satelite. En particular, el estudio implico el procesado de senales lidar tanto elasticas como Raman, y datos de fotometro solar de la red AERONET. Ademas se han usado modelos como HYSPLIT, NAAPS y BSC-DREAM8b para investigar el comportamiento de las plumas de aerosol a escala sinoptica. Los resultados destacan la presencia de una estructura con multiples capas que muestran un exponente de Angstrom de coeficiente de retrodispersion alto (aproximadamente 2) y una despolarizacion lineal de particulas muy baja (menos de 0.04) en las capas a 5-6 km (snm) de altura, lo que indica que son particulas considerablemente pequenas y esfericas. Durante el periodo mas intenso, el 14 de julio, se detectaron valores del coeficiente de retrodispersion de hasta 2.9×10ˉ⁶ (m sr) ˉ¹ para 532 nm. EnglishThis work presents the characterization of aerosols during a special episode of long-range transported biomass burning particles from Canadian forest fires. This event was detected at the EARLINET Granada station (37.16° N, 3.61° W, 680 m asl) from 11ᵗʰ to 17ᵗʰ July 2013, and also over other EARLINET stations. Different techniques, covering active/passive and ground based/satellite ones, have been used. In particular, the study has involved processing of both Raman and elastic lidar signals and sun-photometer AERONET data. Furthermore, modeling tools as HYSPLIT, NAAPS and BSC-DREAM8b have been used to understand the synoptic behavior of the aerosol plumes. The results highlight the presence of a multilayered structure showing large backscatter-related Angstrom Exponent (around 2) and very low particle linear depolarization (less than 0.04) at layers around 5-6 km (asl) which means considerably small and spherical particles. During the strongest period, on 14ᵗʰ July, aerosol backscatter values up to 2.9×10ˉ⁶ (m sr) ˉ¹ at 532 nm were detected in this layer.