Local - Air Project: Tropospheric Aerosol Monitoring by CALIPSO Lidar Satellite and Ground-Based Observations

Abstract

A new method for the detection of the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) height from CALIPSO space-borne lidar data was developed and the possibility to infer the sub-micrometric aerosol particle (i.e., PM1) concentrations at ground level from CALIPSO observations was also explored. The comparison with ground-based lidar measurements from an EARLINET (European Aerosol Research LIdar Network) station showed the reliability of the developed method for the PBL. Moreover, empirical relationships between integrated backscatter values from CALIPSO and PM1 concentrations were found thanks to the combined use of the retrieved PBL heights, CALIPSO aerosol profiles and typing and PM1 insitu measurements.