An EARLINET early warning system for atmospheric aerosol aviation hazards

Abstract

Abstract. A stand-alone lidar-based method for detecting airborne hazards for aviation in near real time (NRT) is presented. A polarization lidar allows for the identification of irregular-shaped particles such as volcanic dust and desert dust. The Single Calculus Chain (SCC) of the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET) delivers high-resolution preprocessed data: the calibrated total attenuated backscatter and the calibrated volume linear depolarization ratio time series. From these calibrated lidar signals, the particle backscatter coefficient and the particle depolarization ratio can be derived in temporally high resolution and thus provide the basis of the NRT early warning system (EWS). In particular, an iterative method for the retrieval of the particle backscatter is implemented. This improved capability was designed as a pilot that will produce alerts for imminent threats for aviation. The method is applied to data during two diverse aerosol scenarios: first, a record breaking desert dust intrusion in March 2018 over Finokalia, Greece, and, second, an intrusion of volcanic particles originating from Mount Etna, Italy, in June 2019 over Antikythera, Greece. Additionally, a devoted observational period including several EARLINET lidar systems demonstrates the network's preparedness to offer insight into natural hazards that affect the aviation sector.

Automated time–height-resolved air mass source attribution for profiling remote sensing applications

“…Both networks, as part of ACTRIS, need additional, continuous information about air mass sources to interpret the observations. Identifying the air mass source region supports the characterization of new particles, e.g., during volcanic eruptions (Pappalardo et al, 2013) or strong wildfires injecting aerosol into the stratosphere (Baars et al, 2019). Also, for aerosol typing (e.g., Amiridis et al, 2015;Wandinger et al, 2016;Papagiannopoulos et al, 2020;Nicolae et al, 2018;Mylonaki et al, 2020), air mass sources can provide an important constraint.…”

“…Also, for aerosol typing (e.g., Amiridis et al, 2015;Wandinger et al, 2016;Papagiannopoulos et al, 2020;Nicolae et al, 2018;Mylonaki et al, 2020), air mass sources can provide an important constraint. Furthermore, operational height-resolved air mass source information could improve warning applications for hazardous events, as demonstrated for EARLINET in the frame of the European EUNADICS-AV exercise (European Natural Disaster Coordination and Information System for Aviation; Papagiannopoulos et al, 2020).…”

Towards Early Detection of Tropospheric Aerosol Layers Using Monitoring with Ceilometer, Photometer, and Air Mass Trajectories

“…On the other hand, it is a reliable dataset when used for the validation of the aerosol layer height (ALH) retrieved from satellites (e.g., [7,8]) and of chemistry transport models [9]. Furthermore, they can provide a warning for aviation (e.g., [10]). The aim of the current study is to introduce a system of aerosol early detection which has also the potential to be extended for the monitoring of the free troposphere aerosol distribution.…”

Comment on acp-2021-442

“…Dust is the largest continental contributor to the global aerosol load and impacts marine (Jickells et al, 2005) and land biogeochemistry (Okin et al, 2004), radiative fluxes (DeMott et al, 2009;Kok et al, 2017;Marinou et al, 2019), human health (Du et al, 2015) and economy (Kosmopoulos et al, 2018;Papagiannopoulos et al, 2020). Properly representing its vertical structure both within the planetary boundary layer over sources and in the free troposphere in the outflow areas is particularly important to predict its long range transport and associated impacts (O'Sullivan et al, 2020).…”