Abstract
Few airborne aerosol research experiments have deployed N2-Raman Lidar despite its capability to retrieve aerosol optical properties without ambiguity. Here, we show the high scientific potential of this instrument when used with specific flight plans. Our demonstration is based on (i) a field-experiment conducted in June 2015 in southern France, involving a N2-Raman Lidar embedded on an ultra-light aircraft (ULA); and (ii) an appropriate algorithmic approach using two-level flight levels, aiming to solve the notorious instability of the airborne Lidar inversion for the retrieval of aerosol optical properties. The Lidar measurements include the determination of the aerosol extinction coefficient along ~500 m horizontal line of sight, and this value is used as a reference to validate the proposed algorithm. The Lidar-derived vertical profiles obtained during the flights are used as an input in a Monte Carlo simulation in order to compute the error budget in terms of biases and standard deviations on the retrieved aerosol extinction coefficient profile, as well as the subsequent optical thickness. The influence of the Lidar ratio (i.e., between aerosol extinction and backscatter) on the error budget is further discussed. Finally, from this end-to-end modeling, an optimal N2-Raman Lidar is proposed for airborne experiments, adapted to both small and large carriers.
Highlights
Atmospheric aerosol is a driver of air quality and climate change
We present an evaluation of the scientific interest of a N2-Raman Lidar to measure the vertical profile of aerosol properties in the low and middle troposphere from a light aircraft
This is not always true, mainly because airborne measurements and strong biases can be encountered in Lidar ratio and aerosol optical thickness (AOT) with such a hypothesis [22]
Summary
Atmospheric aerosol is a driver of air quality and climate change. it is one of the least known components of the atmospheric radiative balance, as already pointed out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [1], as well as several decades’ worth of scientific investigations [2]. To these coordinated field campaigns, we can add the airborne Lidar observations in response to crisis situations like the closing of the European airspace following the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland in April and May 2010 [21,22]
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