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LIDAR Measurements During Aerosols99The Aerosols99 cruise took place during the period from January 14, to February 8 1999 on the R/V Ron Brown. The cruise track was almost a straight line from Norfolk, Va. to Cape Town, South Africa and afforded the opportunity to sample several different aerosol regimes over the North and South Atlantic. A Micro Pulse LIDAR system was used continually during this cruise to profile the aerosol vertical structure. Inversions of this data illustrated a varying vertical structure depending on the dominant air mass. In clean maritime aerosols in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres the aerosols were capped at 1 km. When a Dust event from Africa was encountered the aerosol extinction increased its maximum height to above 2 km. During a period in which the air mass was dominated by biomass burning from Southern Africa, the aerosol layer extended to 4 km. Comparisons of the aerosol optical depth derived from LIDAR inversion and surface sunphotometers showed an agreement within +/- 0.05 RMS Similar comparisons between the extinction measured with a nephelometer and particle soot absorption photometer (at 19 m altitude) and the lowest LIDAR measurement (75 m) showed good agreement (+/- 0.014/km . The LIDAR underestimated surface extinction during periods when an elevated aerosol layer was present over a relatively clean surface layer, but otherwise gave accurate results.
Document ID
20000116200
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Voss, Kenneth J. (Miami Univ. FL United States)
Welton, Ellsworth J. (Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Greenbelt, MD United States)
Quinn, Patricia K. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Seattle, WA United States)
Johnson, James (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Seattle, WA United States)
Thompson, Anne (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Einaudi, Franco
Date Acquired
September 7, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2000
Subject Category
Spacecraft Design, Testing And Performance
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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