Raman lidar observations of aerosol emitted during the 2002 Etna eruption

Abstract

[1] Results of a lidar measurement campaign performed at IMAA-CNR (Potenza, Italy) during the 2002 Etna volcano eruption, are reported. With combined Raman elasticbackscatter lidar, independent measurements of aerosol extinction and backscatter coefficients at 355 nm are retrieved, whereas aerosol backscatter coefficient at 532 nm is retrieved from elastic lidar signal. A volcanic aerosol layer has been observed in the free troposphere on 1 -2 November. AVHRR images show direct plume transport from Etna to Potenza. Optical depth of 0.1 and lidar ratio of 55 sr at 355 nm have been observed at the moment of direct transport. For the first time, a measurement of the lidar ratio for tropospheric volcanic aerosol has been performed. This lidar ratio value and the estimation of the wavelength dependence of the aerosol backscatter coefficient of 2.4 indicate the presence of young submicron sulfate particles, a low soot content, and the absence of large ash particles.

EARLINET: towards an advanced sustainable European aerosol lidar network

“…Beside climatological measurements, EARLINET also performs specific observations during special events such as Saharan dust outbreaks (e.g., Ansmann et al, 2003;Balis et al, 2004;Mona et al, 2006;Guerrero-Rascado et al, 2009;Wiegner et al, 2011), volcanic eruptions (e.g., Pappalardo et al, 2004bPappalardo et al, , 2013Wang et al, 2008;Ansmann et al, 2010;Groß et al, 2011a;Navas-Guzmán et al, 2013b), and biomass burning (e.g., Alados-Arboledas et al, 2011, Amiridis et al, 2009, Müller et al, 2007bMattis et al, 2003). In particular, within the network, an alert service for Saharan dust outbreaks has been established based on the use of operational dust forecasting of different regional models, such as the Skiron ) and BSCDREAM8b (Barcelona Supercomputing Center -Dust Regional Atmospheric Model) models (Pérez et al, 2006b, c;Basart et al, 2012).…”

Observation of non‐spherical ultragiant aerosol using a microwave radar

“…The observation of volcanic ash using lidar remote sensing instruments is also largely reported in literature. Lidar techniques are particularly appealing in monitoring the dispersion of a volcanic plume in the atmosphere because they are able to characterize the optical properties of volcanic ash, like backscattering and extinction coefficient [e.g., Pappalardo et al, 2004], with a high vertical and temporal resolution, as well as to provide measurements of the aerosol depolarization ratio. Their coupling with in-situ techniques is also a powerful approach for the development of retrieval algorithms for the particle size estimation.…”

Profiling of fine and coarse particle mass: case studies of Saharan dust and Eyjafjallajökull/Grimsvötn volcanic plumes

“…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. Polarization lidars equipped not only with elastic backscatter channels but also with nitrogen Raman channels increase the potential of such a monitoring site by independently measuring vertical profiles of particle backscatter and extinction coefficients (Ansmann et al, 1992;Ansmann and Müller, 2005;Shcherbakov, 2007;Samoilova and Balin, 2008;Pornsawad et al, 2012) and by providing direct observations on the relationship between backscatter and extinction (lidar ratio) for desert dust, volcanic dust, and for layers with mixtures of dust and fine-mode particles (Mattis et al, 2002Pappalardo et al, 2004;Müller et al, 2007;Wang et al, 2008;Tesche et al, 2009aTesche et al, , 2011aWiegner et al, 2011Wiegner et al, , 2012Groß et al, 2011bGroß et al, , 2012Mona et al, 2012;Papayannis et al, 2012;Sicard et al, 2012).…”