Stratospheric Smoke Properties Based on Lidar Observations in Autumn 2017 Over Warsaw

Abstract

<jats:p>Smoke layers in the stratosphere were observed during autumn 2017 using PollyXT-UW Raman lidar at the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network in the frame of the Aerosol Cloud and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure, i.e. the EARLINET-ACTRIS site in Warsaw, Poland. The analysis was focused on discriminating very weak signatures of smoke layers in the stratosphere and investigating their optical properties. Preliminary results are presented and discussed. A decrease of the lidar-derived stratospheric aerosol optical depth contribution to the total optical depth was detected after the stratospheric smoke particles circled Northern Hemisphere.</jats:p>

A Decade of Poland-AOD Aerosol Research Network Observations

“…This process is identified by an increase in AOD and AE and surface PM 10 and PM 2.5 mass concentration and an increase in the PBL top height. Transport of biomass burning particles was identified between the lower and upper troposphere and occasionally in the lower stratosphere [59]. The optical properties of the biomass burning particles showed moderate absorption due to the oxidation process and water uptake during several days of transport from the source region.…”

“…Such events are observed mostly during spring and summer when natural aerosol emissions are at their maximum, and deep convection transports air pollution to the middle and the upper troposphere. In recent years, lidar observations have shown high biomass burning activity from wildfire emissions in Europe (mostly from Ukraine) and North America [15,16,34,36,59]. The transport of biomass burning from Ukraine, as detailed in [16], indicates the intrusion of smoke particles into the urban, planetary boundary layer.…”

“…Both campaigns focused on a characterization of the atmospheric composition obtained from different combinations of remote sensing and in situ instrumentation, such as the ESA Mobile Raman Lidar EMORAL, the PollyXT lidar, the BASTA 95GHz Doppler cloud radar (provided by LATMOS, France), the HALO Doppler lidar (provided by the University of Granada, Spain), the HATPRO microwave radiometer (provide by INOE, Romania), the CIMEL photometer, the static chamber sites for CO 2 , CH 4 , and water vapour flux measurements. The synergy of data obtained from remote sensing instruments was used to discriminate molecular, aerosol, and cloud particles [30], to assess the contribution of free troposphere aerosols to total aerosol loading within the troposphere [40,58] and stratosphere [59], including ongoing work on estimation of the aerosol vertical fluxes within the boundary layer.…”