Aerosol lidar intercomparison in the framework of the EARLINET project 1 Instruments: erratum

Abstract

In the framework of the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network to Establish an Aerosol Climatology ͑EARLINET͒, 19 aerosol lidar systems from 11 European countries were compared. Aerosol extinction or backscatter coefficient profiles were measured by at least two systems for each comparison. Aerosol extinction coefficients were derived from Raman lidar measurements in the UV ͑351 or 355 nm͒, and aerosol backscatter profiles were calculated from pure elastic backscatter measurements at 351 or 355, 532, or 1064 nm. The results were compared for height ranges with high and low aerosol content. Some systems were additionally compared with sunphotometers and starphotometers. Predefined maximum deviations were used for quality control of the results. Lidar systems with results outside those limits could not meet the quality assurance criterion. The algorithms for deriving aerosol backscatter profiles from elastic lidar measurements were tested separately, and the results are described in Part 2 of this series of papers ͓Appl. Opt. 43, 977-989 ͑2004͔͒. In the end, all systems were quality assured, although some had to be modified to improve their performance. Typical deviations between aerosol backscatter profiles were 10% in the planetary boundary layer and 0.1 ϫ 10 Ϫ6 m Ϫ1 sr Ϫ1 in the free troposphere.

Optical properties of different aerosol types: seven years of combined Raman-elastic backscatter lidar measurements in Thessaloniki, Greece

“…For backscatter coefficient at 532 nm additional uncertainties are being introduced by the fact that an unknown lidar ratio has to be assumed. Both the system and algorithms used have been quality assured within the EARLINET (Matthias et al, 2004a;Böckmann et al, 2004;Pappalardo et al, 2004).…”

Optical characteristics of biomass burning aerosols over Southeastern Europe determined from UV-Raman lidar measurements

“…The optical receiver is a 500 mm diameter telescope. The LAP lidar was successfully intercompared with other EARLINET instruments showing on the average an agreement of better than 5% for heights above 2 km in the backscatter coefficient (Matthias et al, 2004). The lidar-data handling procedures that are routinely used at LAP for the application of FernaldKlett and Raman retrieval methods were successfully tested by two algorithm intercomparisons that took place during the EARLINET project (Böckmann et al, 2004;Pappalardo et al, 2004) and include error estimates for all participating groups.…”

EAQUATE - An International Experiment For Hyper-spectral Atmospheric Sounding Validation

“…The BAe146-301 operated a number of radiometer (a) The ARIES instrument operates within the 3.3 to 16 µm region with 0. (Matthias et al, 2004). …”

“…The instrument has been extensively involved in the EARLINET project (Boesenberg, J., et al, 2001). During the EARLINET project, special care was devoted to the validation of the experimental set-up (Matthias et al, 2004) and the algorithms to retrieve aerosol backscattering (Bockmann et al, 2004) and extinction coefficients Aqua AIRS(NASA): The AIRS instrument flying aboard the EOS Aqua polar orbiting satellite is the first space borne spectrometer designed to meet the 1-K/1-km sounding accuracy objective by measuring the infrared spectrum quasi-continuously from 3.7 to 15.4 microns with high spectral resolution (ν/δν = 1200/1). The sensitivity requirements, expressed as Noise Equivalent Differential Temperature (NEDT), referred to a 250 K target-temperature, ranges from 0.1 K in the 4.2 µm lower tropospheric sounding wavelengths to 0.5 K in the 15 µm upper tropospheric and stratospheric sounding spectral region.…”