Abstract. This paper describes the EARLINET quality assurance (QA) check-up tools for the hardware of lidars, developed in the recent years to monitor and improve the quality of the lidar systems and of their products. These check-up tools are the trigger-delay test, the Rayleigh-fit, the lidar test-pulse generator, the dark measurement, the telecover test, and the polarisation calibration.

The biomass burning events are analyzed using the EARLINET-ACTRIS atmospheric profiling of aerosols using lidars. The period of 2008-2017 was chosen to analyze all the events assigned in the EARLINET database under Forest Fire category. A number of fourteen stations were considered. The data provided, ranged from complete data sets (backscatter, extinction and particle linear depolarization ratio) to single profiles (backscatter coefficient). A thorough quality control was performed. Smoke layers geometry was evaluated and the mean properties within each layer were computed. The Hysplit backward-trajectory technique and the FIRMS fire database were used to double check the source of each layer. Discussions were made under the following scenarios: fire events seen by two stations, long range transport from North America, and geographical clusters.

No abstract