Theoretical derivation of aerosol lidar ratio using Mie theory for CALIOP-CALIPSO and OPAC aerosol models

Abstract

Abstract. The extinction-to-backscattering ratio, popularly known as lidar (light detection and ranging) ratio of atmospheric aerosols is an important optical property, which is essential to retrieve the extinction profiles of atmospheric aerosols. Lidar satellite observations can provide the global coverage of atmospheric aerosols along with their vertical extent. NASA's Cloud-Aerosol LIdar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) on board the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite is the only space-based platform available, so far, that provides the vertical profiles of extinction due to atmospheric aerosols. A physics-based theoretical approach is presented in the present paper that estimates lidar ratio values for CALIPSO aerosol models, which can be used as inputs to determine the extinction profiles of aerosols using CALIPSO data. The developed methodology was also qualified by comparing it with the lidar ratio values derived using AERONET (AErosol RObotic NETwork) datasets. Lidar ratio values for CALIPSO aerosol models were estimated in the range of 38.72 to 85.98 sr at 532 nm, whereas at 1064 nm lidar ratio varied between 20.11 to 71.11 sr depending upon the aerosol type and their size distributions. Aerosols are compositions of various particles; thus, the presence of water vapour in the atmosphere can affect the optical properties of the aerosols. Thus, the effect of relative humidity on lidar ratio was studied using Optical Properties of Aerosols and Clouds (OPAC) aerosol models, which are the standard aerosol models against the cluster-classified AERONET and CALIPSO aerosol models. Water-soluble particles contribute substantially in clean continental, clean marine, tropical marine and desert aerosol models and are hygroscopic in nature. Hygroscopic sulfate particles dominate the Antarctic aerosols during summertime. In the presence of relative humidity between 0 %–80 %, the lidar ratio values were observed to decrease from 53.59 to 47.13, from 53.66 to 47.15, from 53.70 to 47.16, and from 55.32 to 48.78 sr at 532 nm for clean continental, clean marine, tropical marine, and desert aerosols, respectively, whereas lidar ratio gradually increased from 47.13 to 51, from 47.15 to 51, from 47.16 to 51, and from 48.78 to 51.68 sr, respectively, for these aerosol models when relative humidity was between 80 %–99 %, due to constituent hygroscopic particles. In the case of Antarctic aerosols, the lidar ratio was observed to increase from 57.73 to 97.64 sr due to hygroscopic sulfate particles that backscattered heavily in the presence of water vapour at 532 nm. The soot particles dominate the polluted continental and polluted marine particles, causing an increase in lidar ratio over its corresponding clean counterpart. Similar results were observed at 1064 nm for OPAC aerosol models.