Vertical profiles of atmospheric particle parameters measured with a scanning 6-wavelength 11-channel aerosol lidar

Abstract

The transportable scanning six-wavelength eleven-channel aerosol lidar of the Insitute for Tropospheric Research represents the most powerful tool for a comprehensive characterization of atmospheric particles with lidar. Particle backscatter coefficients are determined at 6 wavelengths between 355 and 1064 nm. Particle extinction coefficients are determined at 355 and 532 nm. The instrument makes use of the elastic backscatter, Raman lidar. and scanning lidar technique. The physical particle parameters including the single-scattering albedo are retrieved from the optical data with an inversion scheme based on Tikhonov's inversion with regularization. The optical and physical parameter allow to perform radiative impact studies on the basis of lidar observations. The system was successfully operated in the Aerosol Characterization Experiment 2 (ACE 2) and the Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX). A measurement example taken from the Lindenberg Aerosol Characterization Experiment 98 (LACE 98) exemplifies the potential of this instrument.