Volcanic aerosol layers observed with multiwavelength Raman lidar over central Europe in 2008–2009

Mattis, Ina; Siefert, Patric; Müller, Detlef; Tesche, Matthias; Hiebsch, Anja; Kanitz, Thomas; Schmidt, Jörg; Finger, Fanny; Wandinger, Ulla; Ansmann, Albert

doi:10.1029/2009jd013472

Cited by 95 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The most important change occurred in 2008 and 2009 when several strong eruptions occurred in the mid-latitudes (Table 1; Massie, 2012;Martinsson et al, 2009;Bourassa et al, 2010;Heue et al, 2010;Mattis et al, 2010;Kravitz et al, 2011;Campbell et al, 2012), starting with those of the Aleutian volcanoes Okmok and Kasatochi (both VEI = 4). In Figs.…”

Section: Increase Of Volcanic Activity Between 2006 and 2011mentioning

confidence: 99%

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35 yr of stratospheric aerosol measurements at Garmisch-Partenkirchen: from Fuego to Eyjafjallajökull, and beyond

et al. 2013

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Lidar measurements at Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany) have almost continually delivered backscatter coefficients of stratospheric aerosol since 1976. The time series is dominated by signals from the particles injected into or formed in the stratosphere due to major volcanic eruptions, in particular those of El Chichon (Mexico, 1982) and Mt Pinatubo (Philippines, 1991). Here, we focus more on the long-lasting background period since the late 1990s and 2006, in view of processes maintaining a residual lower-stratospheric aerosol layer in absence of major eruptions, as well as the period of moderate volcanic impact afterwards. During the long background period the stratospheric backscatter coefficients reached a level even below that observed in the late 1970s. This suggests that the predicted potential influence of the strongly growing air traffic on the stratospheric aerosol loading is very low. Some correlation may be found with single strong forest-fire events, but the average influence of biomass burning seems to be quite limited. No positive trend in background aerosol can be resolved over a period as long as that observed by lidar at Mauna Loa. We conclude that the increase of our integrated backscatter coefficients starting in 2008 is mostly due to volcanic eruptions with explosivity index 4, penetrating strongly into the stratosphere. Most of them occurred in the mid-latitudes. A key observation for judging the role of eruptions just reaching the tropopause region was that of the plume from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull above Garmisch-Partenkirchen (April 2010) due to the proximity of that source. The top altitude of the ash above the volcano was reported just as 9.3 km, but the lidar measurements revealed enhanced stratospheric aerosol up to 14.3 km. Our analysis suggests for two or three of the four measurement days the presence of a stratospheric contribution from Iceland related to quasi-horizontal transport, differing from the strong descent of the layers entering Central Europe at low altitudes. The backscatter coefficients within the first 2 km above the tropopause exceed the stratospheric background by a factor of four to five. In addition, Asian and Saharan dust layers were identified in the free troposphere, Asian dust most likely even in the stratosphere

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Section: Increase Of Volcanic Activity Between 2006 and 2011mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the infrared values seem to be rather low, which indicates small particles (one August example for 532 nm being in relatively good agreement with our results). Indeed, Mattis et al (2010) derived an effective radius of 0.2 µm and Angström coefficients up to 2.…”

Section: Increase Of Volcanic Activity Between 2006 and 2011mentioning

confidence: 99%

35 yr of stratospheric aerosol measurements at Garmisch-Partenkirchen: from Fuego to Eyjafjallajökull, and beyond

et al. 2013

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“…These quite different forms of size distributions and r eff are expected to cover the range of realistic size distributions for ash particles. SD#1 is considered as the lower limit with respect to the width of the size distribution because volcanic ash particles typically have a wide range of sizes (e.g., Mather et al, 2003;Schumann et al, 2010b). In all simulations, particles up to r = 40 µm are accounted for.…”

Section: Radiative Transfer Calculationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Non-ash particles of volcanic origin are usually liquid particles, predominantly originating from condensation of volcanic gases. Ash particles are solid particles with non-spherical shapes, consisting of glass and crystals from the magma and fragments from the walls of the volcano vent (Mather et al, 2003). The non-sphericity of ash particles allows one to distinguish ash from other aerosol types by means of polarization lidars (Sassen et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Volcanic ash from Iceland over Munich: mass concentration retrieved from ground-based remote sensing measurements

et al. 2011

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Abstract. Volcanic ash plumes, emitted by the Eyjafjallajökull volcano (Iceland) in spring 2010, were observed by the lidar systems MULIS and POLIS in Maisach (near Munich, Germany), and by a CIMEL Sun photometer and a JenOptik ceilometer in Munich. We retrieve mass concentrations of volcanic ash from the lidar measurements; spectral optical properties, i.e. extinction coefficients, backscatter coefficients, and linear depolarization ratios, are used as input for an inversion. The inversion algorithm searches for model aerosol ensembles with optical properties that agree with the measured values within their uncertainty ranges. The non-sphericity of ash particles is considered by assuming spheroids. Optical particle properties are calculated using the T-matrix method supplemented by the geometric optics approach. The lidar inversion is applied to observations of the pure volcanic ash plume in the morning of 17 April 2010. We find 1.45 g m −2 for the ratio between the mass concentration and the extinction coefficient at λ = 532 nm, assuming an ash density of 2.6 g cm −3 . The uncertainty range for this ratio is from 0.87 g m −2 to 2.32 g m −2 . At the peak of the ash concentration over Maisach the extinction coefficient at λ = 532 nm was 0.75 km −1 (1-h-average), which corresponds to a maximum mass concentration of 1.1 mg m −3 (0.65 to 1.8 mg m −3 ). Model calculations show that particle backscatter at our lidar wavelengths (λ ≤ 1064 nm), and thus the lidar retrieval, is hardly sensitive to large particles (r 3 µm); large particles, however, may contain significant amounts of mass. Therefore, as an independent cross check of the lidar retrieval and to investigate the presence of large particles in more detail, we model ratios of sky radiances in the aureole of the Sun and compare them to measurements of the CIMEL. These ratios are sensitive to particles up to r ≈ 10 µm. This approach confirms the mass concentrations Correspondence to: J. Gasteiger (josef.gasteiger@lmu.de) from the lidar retrieval. We conclude that synergistic utilization of high quality lidar and Sun photometer data, in combination with realistic aerosol models, is recommended for improving ash mass concentration retrievals.

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“…Some contribution to the stratospheric aerosol load may be provided by moderate tropical or subtropical volcanism (e.g., Soufrière Hills or Nabro) even though the volcano's vertical expulsion energy is too weak to directly inject material into the stratosphere, in contrast, for example, to the 1991 Pinatubo eruption. The ejected particulate matter accumulates in the upper troposphere (Mattis et al, 2010) or lower stratosphere (Vernier et al, 2011;Borrmann et al, 2010), where the BrewerDobson circulation likely lofts these particles to higher altitudes within the stratosphere (Vernier et al, 2011). Of course, aerosol material from other terrestrial sources (fine-mode desert dust or biomass burning material from boreal fires) could also follow this pathway into the stratosphere unless these species vanish due to in-cloud processes (solution in the liquid phase and chemical transformation) or precipitation (Fromm et al, 2000;Jost et al, 2004) The present work focusses on analyses of particles sampled within or nearby the Arctic winter vortex.…”

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confidence: 99%

Chemical analysis of refractory stratospheric aerosol particles collected within the arctic vortex and inside polar stratospheric clouds

et al. 2016

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Abstract. Stratospheric aerosol particles with diameters larger than about 10 nm were collected within the arctic vortex during two polar flight campaigns: RECONCILE in winter 2010 and ESSenCe in winter 2011. Impactors were installed on board the aircraft M-55 Geophysica, which was operated from Kiruna, Sweden. Flights were performed at a height of up to 21 km and some of the particle samples were taken within distinct polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs). The chemical composition, size and morphology of refractory particles were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis. During ESSenCe no refractory particles with diameters above 500 nm were sampled. In total 116 small silicate, Fe-rich, Pb-rich and aluminum oxide spheres were found. In contrast to ESSenCe in early winter, during the late-winter RECONCILE mission the air masses were subsiding inside the Arctic winter vortex from the upper stratosphere and mesosphere, thus initializing a transport of refractory aerosol particles into the lower stratosphere. During RECONCILE, 759 refractory particles with diameters above 500 nm were found consisting of silicates, silicate / carbon mixtures, Fe-rich particles, Ca-rich particles and complex metal mixtures. In the size range below 500 nm the presence of soot was also proven. While the data base is still sparse, the general tendency of a lower abundance of refractory particles during PSC events compared to non-PSC situations was observed. The detection of large refractory particles in the stratosphere, as well as the experimental finding that these particles were not observed in the particle samples (upper size limit ∼ 5 µm) taken during PSC events, strengthens the hypothesis that such particles are present in the lower polar stratosphere in late winter and have provided a surface for heterogeneous nucleation during PSC formation.

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Volcanic aerosol layers observed with multiwavelength Raman lidar over central Europe in 2008–2009

Cited by 95 publications

References 25 publications

35 yr of stratospheric aerosol measurements at Garmisch-Partenkirchen: from Fuego to Eyjafjallajökull, and beyond

35 yr of stratospheric aerosol measurements at Garmisch-Partenkirchen: from Fuego to Eyjafjallajökull, and beyond

Volcanic ash from Iceland over Munich: mass concentration retrieved from ground-based remote sensing measurements

Chemical analysis of refractory stratospheric aerosol particles collected within the arctic vortex and inside polar stratospheric clouds

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