Arctic high spectral resolution lidar measurements of aerosols and clouds

 
Poster PDF

Authors

Marian B. Clayton — Science Systems and Applications, Inc. (SSAI)
Richard A. Ferrare — NASA - Langley Research Center
Edwin W. Eloranta — University of Wisconsin
David D. Turner — NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory

Category

Instruments

Description

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, the DOE ARM Climate Research Facility deployed a new ground-based Arctic high spectral resolution lidar (AHSRL) at the North Slope of Alaska (NSA) site. This lidar, which is based on the AHSRL that was part of NOAA’s SEARCH (Study of Environmental Arctic Change) contribution to the Canadian Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Change (CANDAC) facility at Eureka, Nunavut Territory, is an autonomous lidar that provides calibrated profiles of particulate (i.e., aerosol and cloud) backscatter cross section, optical thickness, and circular depolarization at 532 nm. The AHSRL provides measurements of both intensive and extensive particulate properties. The intensive parameters depend only on the nature of the particles (size, composition, shape), not on the quantity or concentration. Here we present AHSRL measurements and describe how these can be used to discriminate and identify ice, liquid water, and aerosol (e.g., dust, pollution) particles. The AHSRL measurements are also combined with additional NSA measurements to study the vertical distributions and properties of aerosols and clouds above the NSA.