Monitoring Dust Events Using Doppler Lidar and Ceilometer in Iceland

Shu Yang,Sibylle Von Löwis,Matthias Wiegner,David Christian Finger,Jana Preißler,Guðrún Nína Petersen,Michelle Maree Parks

doi:10.3390/atmos11121294

Shu Yang, Sibylle Von Löwis + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11121294

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Abstract

Ground-based lidars and ceilometers are widely used for dust and volcanic ash observation around the world. This is particularly interesting in Iceland where high-altitude dust events occur frequently during strong wind conditions and volcanic eruptions. To explore the possible application of such technologies in Iceland for monitoring dust events, we used a combination of Doppler wind lidars with depolarization channels, ceilometers, and other instruments, to monitor two dust events that occurred in Iceland during summer 2019. We applied a verified ceilometer data processing procedure with customized local corrections and developed a new procedure to process Doppler lidar data for aerosols measurements. Both lidar and ceilometer observations can be used to detect the dust layer and reveal the temporal and vertical distribution of dust aerosols in Iceland. The depolarization ratio measurements indicate that the weather conditions, e.g., relative humidity, could have a significant impact on lidar measurements. We conclude that using Doppler wind lidar and ceilometer measurements to monitor volcanic and sedimentary aerosols is possible and may be used to provide important information to the scientific community.

Highlights

A lidar system is an active remote sensing technology, which is used in different sectors, from auto-driven cars’ sensor [1] to civil engineering structure monitoring [2]
With Raman lidars or high spectral resolution lidars (HSRL), the extinction coefficient profiles, which are related to the absorbed lidar signals, can be measured directly, and the lidar ratio can be calculated based on the backscatter and extinction coefficient [7]
We investigated two dust events that occurred in Southwest-Iceland in the summer of 2019

Summary

Introduction

A lidar (light detection and ranging) system is an active remote sensing technology, which is used in different sectors, from auto-driven cars’ sensor [1] to civil engineering structure monitoring [2]. It is used in meteorology, mainly focused on wind detection [3,4,5,6] and aerosol and cloud detection [7,8], depending on the type of lidar. The lidar is emitting a laser beam and receives the backscattered signals, which could be airborne aerosols, cloud droplets, or other particles in the atmosphere. A combination of the lidar ratio and the depolarization ratio is commonly used for aerosol classification and volcanic ash discrimination [8,10]

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