Abstract
Abstract. The polarization lidar photometer networking (POLIPHON) method introduced to separate coarse-mode and fine-mode particle properties of Eyjafjallajökull volcanic aerosols in 2010 is extended to cover Saharan dust events as well. Furthermore, new volcanic dust observations performed after the Grimsvötn volcanic eruptions in 2011 are presented. The retrieval of particle mass concentrations requires mass-specific extinction coefficients. Therefore, a review of recently published mass-specific extinction coefficients for Saharan dust and volcanic dust is given. Case studies of four different scenarios corroborate the applicability of the profiling technique: (a) Saharan dust outbreak to central Europe, (b) Saharan dust plume mixed with biomass-burning smoke over Cape Verde, and volcanic aerosol layers originating from (c) the Eyjafjallajökull eruptions in 2010 and (d) the Grimsvötn eruptions in 2011. Strong differences in the vertical aerosol layering, aerosol mixing, and optical properties are observed for the different volcanic events.
Highlights
The eruptions of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in April–May 2010 triggered the development of a variety of new lidarbased methods to identify ash and dust particles1 in volcanic aerosol plumes containing fine and coarse particles
The polarization lidar permits the discrimination of light-depolarizing coarse-mode particles such as volcanic dust and desert dust and nonlight-depolarizing fine-mode particles such as anthropogenic haze and volcanic sulfate particles (Sakai et al, 2003a; Murayama et al, 2003; Sugimoto et al, 2003; Shimizu et al, 2004; Sugimoto and Lee, 2006; Sassen, 2005; Sassen et al, 2007; Nishizawa et al, 2007; Liu et al, 2008; Freudenthaler et al, 2009; Groß et al, 2011a, 2012; Miffre et al, 2012)
We extended the range of applications of our polarization lidar photometer networking (POLIPHON) method, introduced after the volcanic eruptions in 2010, to Saharan dust events
Summary
The eruptions of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in April–May 2010 triggered the development of a variety of new lidarbased methods to identify ash and dust particles in volcanic aerosol plumes containing fine and coarse particles. Ansmann et al.: Fine and coarse particle profiling demonstrate the usefulness of sun-sky photometry in cases of complex aerosol scattering conditions These photometer observations provide volume-to-extinction conversion factors which in combination with estimates of particle mass density allow us to retrieve particle mass concentration profiles from the lidar-derived extinction profiles. Instrumentation, for which high quality measurement standards can be maintained over long time periods, in combination with likewise simple data processing schemes is of advantage for continuous network monitoring of the spread of aerosol plumes over days and weeks with high vertical and temporal resolution This particle mass profiling (PMAP) polarization lidar photometer networking (POLIPHON) method can be regarded as one of the basic techniques for detailed height-resolved profiling of optical and microphysical properties of atmospheric particles. These case studies include unique observations of (a) a lofted Saharan dust plume as typically observed over central Europe after Saharan dust outbreaks (Ansmann et al, 2003; Papayannis et al, 2008; Wiegner et al, 2011), (b) mixtures of desert dust with biomass-burning aerosol as observed at Cape Verde during the Saharan Mineral Dust Experiment 2 (SAMUM2) (Ansmann et al, 2011a; Tesche et al, 2011a,b; Groß et al, 2011a,b), and (c) and (d) volcanic aerosol plumes (mixtures of volcanic dust and sulfate particles) after the Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruption in April 2010 (Ansmann et al, 2011b) and after the eruptions of the Grimsvotn volcano on Iceland in May 2011 (Kerminen et al, 2011; Tesche et al, 2012)
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