Aerosol optical properties as observed from an ultralight aircraft over the Strait of Gibraltar

Chazette, Patrick

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4461-2020

Articles | Volume 13, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4461-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

CHemistry and AeRosols Mediterranean EXperiments (ChArMEx)...

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4461-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 8

Research article

|

18 Aug 2020

Research article |

| 18 Aug 2020

Aerosol optical properties as observed from an ultralight aircraft over the Strait of Gibraltar

Patrick Chazette

Data sets

ERA5 hourly data on pressure levels from 1979 to present Copernicus Climate Change Service https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.bd0915c6

Advancements in the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) Version 3 database – automated near-real-time quality control algorithm with improved cloud screening for Sun photometer aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements (https://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/) D. M. Giles, A. Sinyuk, M. G. Sorokin, J. S. Schafer, A. Smirnov, I. Slutsker, T. F. Eck, B. N. Holben, J. R. Lewis, J. R. Campbell, E. J. Welton, S. V. Korkin, and A. I. Lyapustin https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-169-2019

MODIS Atmosphere L2 Aerosol Product (Terra) R. Levy and C. Hsu https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD04_L2.006

MODIS Atmosphere L2 Aerosol Product (Aqua) R. Levy and C. Hsu https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MYD04_L2.006

Fully automated analysis of space-based lidar data: an overview of the CALIPSO retrieval algorithms and data products (https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/dataprod/) A. Vaughan, S. A. Young, D. M. Winker, K. A. Powell, A. H. Omar, Z. Liu, Y. Hu, and C. A. Hostetler https://doi.org/10.1117/12.572024

Short summary

By coupling lidar on board a ULA and ground-based lidar measurements, this paper highlights aerosol transport over the Strait of Gibraltar. It shows that the lidar-derived aerosol optical properties can be different from what is commonly accepted. It presents unprecedented vertical profiles over this region and relates them to the origin of air masses. The results are based on ground, airborne, and spaceborne observations, as well as multiple retro-trajectory analyses.