Articles | Volume 13, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4261-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4261-2020
Research article
 | 
13 Aug 2020
Research article |  | 13 Aug 2020

Evaluation of a method for converting Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) extinction coefficients to backscatter coefficients for intercomparison with lidar observations

Travis N. Knepp, Larry Thomason, Marilee Roell, Robert Damadeo, Kevin Leavor, Thierry Leblanc, Fernando Chouza, Sergey Khaykin, Sophie Godin-Beekmann, and David Flittner

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Cited articles

Ackerman, M., Brogniez, C., Diallo, B. S., Fiocco, G., Gobbi, P., Herman, M., J ager, M., Lenoble, J., Lippens, C., Mégie, G., Pelon, J., Reiter, R., and Santer, R.: European validation of SAGE II aerosol profiles, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 94, 8399–8411, https://doi.org/10.1029/JD094iD06p08399, 1989. a
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Bingen, C., Robert, C. E., Stebel, K., Brüehl, C., Schallock, J., Vanhellemont, F., Mateshvili, N., Höpfner, M., Trickl, T., Barnes, J. E., Jumelet, J., Vernier, J.-P., Popp, T., de Leeuw, G., and Pinnock, S.: Stratospheric aerosol data records for the climate change initiative: Development, validation and application to chemistry-climate modelling, Remote Sens. Environ., 203, 296–321, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2017.06.002, 2017. a
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Short summary
Two common measurements that represent atmospheric aerosol loading are the backscatter and extinction coefficients. Measuring backscatter and extinction coefficients requires different viewing geometries and fundamentally different instrument systems. Further, these coefficients are not directly comparable. We present an algorithm to convert SAGE-observed extinction coefficients to backscatter coefficients for intercomparison with lidar backscatter products, followed by evaluation of the method.
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