Tropospheric and stratospheric wildfire smoke profiling with lidar:
Mass, surface area, CCN and INP retrieval

Ansmann, Albert; Ohneiser, Kevin; Mamouri, Rodanthi-Elisavet; Knopf, Daniel A.; Veselovskii, Igor; Baars, Holger; Engelmann, Ronny; Foth, Andreas; Jiménez, Cristofer; Seifert, Patric; Barja, Boris

doi:10.5194/acp-2020-1093

Cited by 10 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…For this purpose, an extinction-to-volume conversion factor of 0.169 × 10 −12 Mm at 532 nm and a particle density of 1.3 g cm −3 have been used for the smoke layer. These values, which are required for the conversion of particle extinction coefficient to mass concentration, correspond to semi-aged smoke according to Ansmann et al (2020). The procedure yields to a maximum smoke mass concentration of 22 μg m −3 in the smoke layer peak around 5 km (maximum extinction coefficient of 160 and 100 Mm −1 at 355 and 532 nm, respectively).…”

Section: Aerosol Optical Profiles Of Aeolus Compared To Ground-based Lidarmentioning

confidence: 99%

Californian Wildfire Smoke Over Europe: A First Example of the Aerosol Observing Capabilities of Aeolus Compared to Ground‐Based Lidar

Baars

Radenz

Floutsi

et al. 2021

Geophysical Research Letters

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In September 2020, extremely strong wildfires in the western United States of America (i.e., mainly in California) produced large amounts of smoke, which was lifted into the free troposphere. These biomass-burning-aerosol (BBA) layers were transported from the US west coast towards central Europe within 3-4 days turning the sky milky and receiving high media attention. The present study characterises this pronounced smoke plume above Leipzig, Germany, using a ground-based multiwavelength-Raman-polarization lidar and the aerosol/cloud product of ESA's wind lidar mission Aeolus. An exceptional high smoke-AOT > 0.4 was measured, yielding to a mean mass concentration of 8 µg m −3 .The 355 nm lidar ratio was moderate at around 40-50 sr. The Aeolus-derived backscatter, extinction and lidar ratio profiles agree well with the observations of the ground-based lidar PollyXT considering the fact that Aeolus aerosol and cloud products are still preliminary and subject to ongoing algorithm improvements.

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Section: Aerosol Optical Profiles Of Aeolus Compared To Ground-based Lidarmentioning

confidence: 99%

Californian Wildfire Smoke Over Europe: A First Example of the Aerosol Observing Capabilities of Aeolus Compared to Ground‐Based Lidar

Baars

Radenz

Floutsi

et al. 2021

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…The retrieval of aerosol microphysical properties such as particle volume, mass, and surface area concentration and estimates of cloud-relevant properties (aerosol-type-dependent cloud condensation nuclei, CCN, and ice-nucleating particles, INPs) is performed by means of the POLIPHON (Polarization Lidar Photometer Networking) approach Ansmann, 2016, 2017;Ansmann et al, 2019Ansmann et al, , 2020. Hofer et al (2020) exemplary shows the full set of POLIPHON aerosol products in the cases of an 18-month Polly campaign in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, for central Asian aerosol.…”

Section: Lidar Productsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…6a) were on the order of 10 Mm −1 in October, around 4-5 Mm −1 during the main winter months and mostly ≤3 Mm −1 at the end of the life time of the smoke layer. From the measured layer-mean extinction coefficients mass concentrations of the smoke particles were derived (Ansmann et al, 2020) and ranged from 0.5-1.8 µg m −3 during the autumn and winter months. Note that AOT values for a clean stratosphere are around 0.001-0.002 (Sakai et al, 2016;Baars et al, 2019) (Kloss et al, 2020), and groundbased Raman lidar observations of the Alfred Wegener Institute at Spitsbergen (Ohneiser et al, 2021), the aerosol layer covered large parts of the Arctic and thus should have been detectable along the CALIPSO flight track (south of 81.8 • N).…”

Section: Wildfire Smoke Layer In the Utls Regimementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this figure, the number concentration of large smoke particles n 250 (with radii > 250 nm, lower axis) is shown as well. This number indicates the overall reservoir of favorable INPs (Ansmann et al, 2020). The surface area s is the smoke input parameter in the estimation of the INPC value (n INP,D , for deposition nucleation and n INP,I for immersion freezing).…”

Section: Cirrus Evolution In the Utls Wildfire Smoke Layermentioning

confidence: 99%

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UTLS wildfire smoke over the North Pole region, Arctic haze, and aerosol-cloud interaction during MOSAiC 2019/20: An introductory

Engelmann¹,

Ansmann²,

Ohneiser³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract. An advanced multiwavelength polarization Raman lidar was operated aboard the icebreaker Polarstern during the MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) expedition, lasting from September 2019 to October 2020, to contiuously monitor aerosol and cloud layers in the Central Arctic up to 30 km height at latitudes mostly between 85° N and 88.5° N. The lidar was integrated in a complex remote sensing infrastructure aboard Polarstern. Modern aerosol lidar methods and new lidar techniques and concepts to explore aerosol-cloud interaction were applied for the first time in the Central Arctic. Aim of the introductory article is to provide an overview of the observational spectrum of the lidar products for representative measurement cases. Highlight of the lidar measurements was the detection of a 10 km deep wildfire smoke layer over the North Pole area from, on average, 7 km to 17 km height with an aerosol optical thickness (AOT) at 532 nm around 0.1 (in October–November 2019) and 0.05 from December to mid of March 2020. The wildfire smoke was trapped within the extraordinarily strong polar vortex and remained detectable until the beginning of May 2020. Arctic haze was also monitored and characterized in terms of backscatter, extinction, and extinction-to-backscatter ratio at 355 and 532 nm. High lidar ratios from 60–100 sr in lofted mixed haze and smoke plumes are indicative for the presence of strongly light-absorbing fine-mode particles. The AOT at 532 nm was of the order of 0.025 for the tropospheric haze layers. In addition, so-called cloud closure experiments were applied to Arctic mixed-phase cloud and cirrus observations. The good match between cloud condensation nucleus concentration (CCNC) and cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC) and, on the other hand, between ice-nucleating particle concentration (INPC) and ice crystal number concentration (ICNC) indicated a clear influence of aerosol particles on the evolution of the cloud systems. CDNC was mostly between 20 and 100 cm−3 in the liquid-water dominated cloud top layer. ICNC was of the order of 0.1–1 L−1. The study of the impact of wildfire smoke particles on cirrus formation revealed that heterogeneous ice formation with smoke particles (organic aerosol particles) as INPs may have prevailed. ICNC values of 10–40 L−1 were clearly below ICNC levels that would indicate homogeneous freezing.

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“…SO2, ash, dust, smoke, radionuclide) is a challenge for modellers, especially when a mix of particle occurs (Koch et al, 2006;Evangeliou and Eckhardt, 2020). The 80 use of satellite (Prata, 2009, Prata et al, 2010Theys et al, 2013Theys et al, , 2019Clarisse et al, 2013Clarisse et al, , 2020Christian et al, 2020;Khaykin et al, 2020) and ground-based networks (Ansmann et al, 2011;Pappalardo et al, 2013;D'amico et al 2015;Osborne et al, 2019;Ansmann et al, 2020;Hernández-Ceballos et al, 2020) is an essential piece in the dispersion modelling process. It makes it possible as it can provide information about the source of emission, discriminate the type of particles, and provide geolocation of the hazardous cloud, a crucial input for transport models.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

EUNADICS early warning system dedicated to support aviation in case of crisis from natural airborne hazard and radionuclide cloud

Brenot

Theys

Clarisse

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Abstract. The purpose of the EUNADICS prototype Early Warning System (EWS) is to proceed the combined use of harmonise data products from satellite, ground-based and in situ instruments to produce alerts of airborne hazard (volcanic, dust, smoke and radionuclide clouds), satisfying the requirement of ATM stakeholders (www.eunadics.eu). The alert products developed by EUNADICS EWS (i.e. NRT observations, email notifications and NetCDF Alert data Products, called NCAP) have shown shows the significant interest in using selective detection of natural airborne hazards from polar orbiting satellite. The combination of several sensors inside a single global system demonstrates the advantage of using a triggered approach to obtain selective detection from observations, which cannot initially discriminate the different aerosol types. Satellite products from hyperspectral UV and IR sensors (e.g. TROPOMI, IASI) and broadband geostationary imager (SEVIRI), and retrievals from ground-based networks (e.g. EARLINET, E-PROFILE and the regional network from volcanic observatories), are combined by our system to create tailored alert products (e.g. selective ash detection, SO2 column and plume height, dust cloud and smoke from wildfires). A total of 23 different alert products are implemented, using 1 geostationary and 12 polar orbiting satellite platforms, 3 external existing service, 2 EU and 2 regional ground-based networks. This allows the identification and the traceability of extreme events. EUNADICS EWS has also shown the interest to proceed a future relay of radiological data (gamma dose rate and radionuclides concentrations in ground-level air) in case of nuclear accident, highlighting the capability of operating early warnings with the use of homogenised dataset. For the four types of airborne hazard, EUNADICS EWS has demonstrated its capability to provide NRT alert data products to trigger data assimilation and dispersion modelling providing forecasts, and inverse modelling for source term estimate. All our alert data products (NCAP files) are not publicly disseminated. Access to our alert products is currently restricted to key users (i.e. Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres, National Meteorological Services, World Meteorological Organization, governments, volcanic observatories and research collaborators), as these are considered pre-decisional products. On the other hand, thanks to the SACS/EUNADICS web interface (https://sacs.aeronomie.be), the main part of the satellite observations used by EUNADICS EWS, are shown in NRT, with public email notification of volcanic emission and delivery of tailored images and NCAP files. All the ATM stakeholders (e.g. VAACs, NMSs, WMOs, Airlines and Pilots) can access and benefit of these alert products through this free channel.

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Tropospheric and stratospheric wildfire smoke profiling with lidar: Mass, surface area, CCN and INP retrieval

Cited by 10 publications

References 72 publications

Californian Wildfire Smoke Over Europe: A First Example of the Aerosol Observing Capabilities of Aeolus Compared to Ground‐Based Lidar

Californian Wildfire Smoke Over Europe: A First Example of the Aerosol Observing Capabilities of Aeolus Compared to Ground‐Based Lidar

UTLS wildfire smoke over the North Pole region, Arctic haze, and aerosol-cloud interaction during MOSAiC 2019/20: An introductory

EUNADICS early warning system dedicated to support aviation in case of crisis from natural airborne hazard and radionuclide cloud

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