Vertical distribution of aerosols in Mexico City during MILAGRO-2006 campaign

Abstract

Abstract. On 7 March 2006, a mobile, ground-based, vertical pointing, elastic lidar system made a North-South transect through the Mexico City basin. Aerosol size distribution measurements, made concurrently, allowed calculation of the mass extinction efficiency (MEE) for the lidar system (1064 nm). MEE combined with an inverted lidar extinction coefficient resulted in total aerosol vertical mass estimates with 1.5 m vertical spatial and 1 s temporal resolution. The results showed that the aerosol loading within the basin is about twice what is observed outside of the basin. The total aerosol base concentrations observed in the basin are of the order of 200 μg/m3 and the base levels outside are of the order of 100 μg/m3. The local heavy traffic events can introduce aerosol levels near the ground as high as 900 μg/m3. The lidar-based total aerosol loading compares with the hourly-averaged PM10 ground observations conducted by the RAMA monitoring network throughout Mexico City.