The Aerosol Limb Imager: multi-spectral polarimetric observations of stratospheric aerosol

Letros, Daniel; Graham, Liam; Bourassa, Adam; Degenstein, Doug; Loewen, Paul; Rieger, Landon; Lloyd, Nick

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-6185-2025

Articles | Volume 18, issue 21

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-6185-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-6185-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 21

Research article

|

04 Nov 2025

Research article |

| 04 Nov 2025

The Aerosol Limb Imager: multi-spectral polarimetric observations of stratospheric aerosol

Daniel Letros, Liam Graham, Adam Bourassa, Doug Degenstein, Paul Loewen, Landon Rieger, and Nick Lloyd

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Final revised paper (published on 04 Nov 2025)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 31 Mar 2025)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

RC1:
'Comment on egusphere-2025-67', Anonymous Referee #1, 07 Apr 2025

The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-67/egusphere-2025-67-RC1-supplement.pdf

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-67-RC1
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Daniel Letros, 20 Jun 2025
  
  Author response is attached.
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-67-AC1
RC2:
'Comment on egusphere-2025-67', Anonymous Referee #2, 05 May 2025

The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-67/egusphere-2025-67-RC2-supplement.pdf

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-67-RC2
- AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Daniel Letros, 20 Jun 2025
  
  Author response attached
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-67-AC2
RC3:
'Comment on egusphere-2025-67', Anonymous Referee #3, 08 May 2025

Please see pdf file

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-67-RC3
- AC3: 'Reply on RC3', Daniel Letros, 20 Jun 2025
  
  Author response attached
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-67-AC3

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload

AR by Daniel Letros on behalf of the Authors (20 Jun 2025) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (01 Jul 2025) by Piet Stammes

RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (18 Jul 2025)

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (24 Jul 2025)

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (06 Aug 2025)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

I only have minor comments regarding this version of the paper. The authors have made a good-faith effort to address all of the reviewers' concerns and, importantly, the authors have clearly stated their assumptions and the limitations of this method. The authors have made it clear that the work presented in the paper is not a final product, but is a product that requires further refinement in both the hardware and processing. Therefore, I view this paper as a necessary component in telling the story of their research and this paper will provide the necessary context for future publications. At this point, I only have minor changes to suggest and I recommend the paper for publication.

All line references are to the revised manuscript.

line 14: "...with respected to..." -> "...with respect to..."
line 94: "...to account for the nm dependence..." -> "...to account for the wavelength dependence..."?
line 169: "...off imaging providing..." -> "...off imaging provides..."?
Figure 5 caption: why are there periods scattered through the caption, always before parentheses? Please revise.
Figure 5: This is a general comment about all figures: when creating sub-paneled plots, can the axes have the same scale, range, tick locations, and tick labels? That makes interpretation easier for the reader. This applies to all figures, but Fig. 5 provides a good example. e.g., the y-axis in (a) extends from an unknown altitude (0 km?) to 36.3 km, while (b) extends from another unknown altitude to something above 37 km. The reader should have to waste time trying to mentally align wonky axes, instead he should spend it understanding the science. Just a suggestion, but from a reader's perspective this would be very nice to have.

line 424: "...consists of the of the 10..." -> "consists of the 10..."
line 454: "...states is is well..." -> "...states is well..."
line 474: "...and we speculate..." No need to speculate! This can be demonstrated with simple Mie theory. Please consider rewording.
Figure 14 (and subsequent): another example of mismatching tick locations, labels, and scales.

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (12 Aug 2025) by Piet Stammes

AR by Daniel Letros on behalf of the Authors (20 Aug 2025) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (02 Sep 2025) by Piet Stammes

AR by Daniel Letros on behalf of the Authors (08 Sep 2025) Manuscript

Short summary

The Aerosol Limb Imager (ALI) is an optical instrument which measures stratospheric aerosols. These aerosols are of interest to atmospheric science as they have a significant impact on the Earth's climate. ALI has the ability to measure the polarization of atmospheric light over a wide spectral range, which is a novel ability for the measurement ALI uses. We demonstrate and discuss ALI capability and how the polarized information may improve aerosol information for this type of measurement.