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Remote sensing measurements of aerosols using depolarization Raman Lidar systems from 4 EARLINET (European Aerosol research Lidar Network) stations are used for a comprehensive analysis of Saharan dust events over the Mediterranean basin in the period 2014–2017. In this period, we selected to study 51 dust events regarding the geometrical, optical and microphysical properties of dust particles, classifying them and assessing their radiative forcing effect on the atmosphere. From West to East, the stations of Granada, Potenza, Athens and Limassol were selected as representative Mediterranean cities regularly affected by Saharan dust intrusions. Emphasis was given on lidar measurements in the visible (532 nm) and specifically on the consistency of the particle linear depolarization ratio (δp532), the extinction-to-backscatter lidar ratio (LR532) and the Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT532) within the observed dust layers. We found mean δp532 values of 0.24 ± 0.05, 0.26 ± 0.06, 0.28 ± 0.05 and 0.28 ± 0.04, mean LR532 values of 52 ± 8 sr, 51 ± 9 sr, 52 ± 9 sr and 49 ± 6 sr, and mean AOT532 values of 0.40 ± 0.31, 0.11 ± 0.07, 0.12 ± 0.10 and 0.32 ± 0.17, for Granada, Potenza, Athens and Limassol, respectively. The mean layer thickness values were found to range from ~1700 to ~3400 m. Additionally, based also on a previous aerosol type classification scheme provided by airborne High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) observations and on air mass backward trajectory analysis, a clustering analysis was performed in order to identify the major mixing aerosol types over the studied area. Furthermore, a synergy of lidar measurements and modeling was used to deeply analyze the solar and thermal radiative forcing of airborne dust. In total, a cooling behavior in the solar range and a significantly lower heating behavior in the thermal range was estimated. Depending on the dust optical and geometrical properties, the load intensity and the solar zenith angle (SZA), the estimated solar radiative forcing values range from −59 to −22 W m−2 at the surface and from −24 to −1 W m−2 at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). Similarly, in the thermal spectral range these values range from +2 to +4 W m−2 for the surface and from +1 to +3 W m−2 for the TOA. Finally, the radiative forcing seems to be inversely proportional to the dust mixing ratio, since higher absolute values are estimated for less mixed dust layers.

We investigate the temporal evolution of the planetary boundary-layer (PBL) height over the basin of Athens, Greece, during a 6-year period (2011–2016), using data from a Raman lidar system. The range-corrected lidar signals are selected around local noon (1200 UTC) and midnight (0000 UTC), for a total of 332 cases: 165 days and 167 nights. In this dataset, the extended-Kalman filtering technique is applied and tested for the determination of the PBL height. Several well-established techniques for the PBL height estimation based on lidar data are also tested for a total of 35 cases. The lidar-derived PBL heights are compared to those derived from radiosonde data. The mean PBL height over Athens is found to be 1617 ± 324 m at 1200 UTC and 892 ± 130 m at 0000 UTC for the period examined, while the mean PBL-height growth rate is found to be 170 ± 64 m h and 90 ± 17 m h during daytime and night-time, respectively., The research leading to these results has received additional funding from the European Union 7th Framework Program (FP7/2011-2015) and Horizon 2020/2015-2021 Research and Innovation program (ACTRIS) under grant agreements nos 262254, 654109, and 739530, as well as from Spanish National Science Foundation and FEDER funds PGC2018-094132-B-I00. CommSensLab-UPC is a María-de-Maeztu Excellence Unit, MDM-2016-0600, funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Spain

The mathematical formulation for the optical setup of a typical EARLINET lidar system is given here. The equations describing a lidar system from the emitted laser beam to the projection of the telescope aperture on the final receiving unit (i.e., photomultiplier or photodiode) are presented, based on paraxial approximation and geometric optics approach. The receiving optical setup includes a telescope, a collimating lens, an interference filter and the ensemble objective eyepiece. The set of the derived equations interconnects major parameters of the optical components (e.g., focal lengths, diameters, angles of incidence), revealing their association with the distance of full overlap of the system. These equations may used complementarily with an optical design software, for the preliminary design of a system or can be used as a quick check up tool of an existing lidar system. The evaluation of the formulation on a real system is performed with ray-tracing simulations, revealing an overall good performance with relative differences of the order of 5 % mainly attributed to the limitations of the thin lens approximation.

In this paper we validate the Lidar-Radiometer Inversion Code (LIRIC) retrievals of the aerosol concentration in the fine mode, using the airborne aerosol chemical composition dataset obtained over the Greater Athens Area (GAA) in Greece, during the ACEMED campaign. The study focuses on the 2nd of September 2011, when a long-range transported smoke layer was observed in the free troposphere over Greece, in the height range from 2 to 3 km. CIMEL sun-photometric measurements revealed high AOD (~ 0.4 at 532 nm) and Ångström exponent values (~ 1.7 at 440/870 nm), in agreement with coincident ground-based lidar observations. Airborne chemical composition measurements performed over the GAA, revealed increased CO volume concentration (~ 110 ppbv), with 57% sulphate dominance in the PM1 fraction. For this case, we compare LIRIC retrievals of the aerosol concentration in the fine mode with the airborne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) and Passive Cavity Aerosol Spectrometer Probe (PCASP) measurements. Our analysis shows that the remote sensing retrievals are in a good agreement with the measured airborne in-situ data from 2 to 4 km. The discrepancies observed between LIRIC and airborne measurements at the lower troposphere (below 2 km), could be explained by the spatial and temporal variability of the aerosol load within the area where the airborne data were averaged along with the different time windows of the retrievals. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.

In this study, we address the variations of bare soil surface microwave brightness temperatures and evaluate the performance of a dielectric mixing model over the desert of Kuwait. We use data collected in a field survey and data obtained from NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), European Space Agency Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS), Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), and Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I). In situ measurements are collected during two intensive field campaigns over bare, flat, and homogeneous soil terrains in the desert of Kuwait. Despite the prevailing dry desert environment, a large range of soil moisture values was monitored, due to precedent rain events and subsequent dry down. The mean relative difference (MRD) is within the range of &plusmn, 0.005 m3&middot, m&minus, 3 during the two sampling days. This reflects consistency of soil moisture in space and time. As predicted by the model, the higher frequency channels (18 to 19 GHz) demonstrate reduced sensitivity to surface soil moisture even in the absence of vegetation, topography and heterogeneity. In the 6.9 to 10.7 GHz range, only the horizontal polarization is sensitive to surface soil moisture. Instead, at the frequency of 1.4 GHz, both polarizations are sensitive to soil moisture and span a large dynamic range as predicted by the model. The error statistics of the difference between observed satellite brightness temperature (Tb) (excluding SMOS data due to radio frequency interference, RFI) and simulated brightness temperatures (Tbs) show values of Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD) of 5.05 K at vertical polarization and 4.88 K at horizontal polarization. Such error could be due to the performance of the dielectric mixing model, soil moisture sampling depth and the impact of parametrization of effective temperature and roughness.

Four years (2014-2017) of observations of depolarization Raman Lidar systems of four EARLINET (European Aerosol research Lidar Network) stations [from West to East: Granada (Spain), Potenza (Italy), Athens (Greece) and Limassol (Cyprus)] were collected and used to a statistical analysis of Saharan dust events over Mediterranean basin. In this study, emphasis is given to the consistency of the particle linear depolarization ratio (δp532), the extinction-to-backscatter ratio mentioned as Lidar Ratio (LR532) and the Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT532) within the observed Saharan dust layers, corresponding to the visible range (532 nm). Geometrical properties and clusters of aerosol mixtures are also presented. Our clustering was based on previous classification by airborne High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) observations and was further supported by backward trajectory analysis. We found mean δp532 values of 0.24±0.05, 0.26±0.06, 0.28±0.05 and 0.28±0.04, mean LR532 values of 52±8 sr, 51±9 sr, 52±9 sr and 49±6 sr, mean AOT532 values of 0.40±0.31, 0.11±0.07, 0.12±0.10 and 0.32±0.17 and mean layer thicknesses of 3392±1458 m, 2150±1082 m, 1872±816 m and 1716±567 m for Granada, Potenza, Athens and Limassol respectively. This work could assist in bridging the existing gaps related to the extensive and intensive dust aerosol properties over the Mediterranean and enriching the bibliography about mixed aerosol layers from different sources (e.g. dust and biomass burning (BB) aerosols, dust and urban/ industrial aerosols).

We analyze ten years (2008⁻2017) of ground-based observations of the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) in the atmosphere of Kuwait City, in Middle East. The measurements were conducted with a CIMEL sun-sky photometer, at various wavelengths. The daily average AOD at 500 nm (AOD500) is 0.45, while the mean Ångström coefficient (AE), calculated from the pair of wavelengths 440 and 870 nm, is 0.61. The observed high AOD500 values (0.75⁻2.91), are due to regional sand and dust storm events, which are affecting Kuwait with a mean annual frequency of almost 20 days/year. The long-term record analysis of AOD500 and AE, shows a downward and upward tendency respectively, something which could be attributed to the continuous expansion and industrialization of the main city of Kuwait, in combination with the simultaneous increase of soil moisture over the area. By utilizing back trajectories of air masses for up to 4 days, we assessed the influence of various regions to the aerosol load over Kuwait. The high aerosol loads during spring, are attributed to the dominance of coarse particles from Saudi Arabia (AOD500 0.56⁻0.74), a source area that contributes the 56% to the mean annual AOD500. Other dust sources affecting significantly Kuwait originated from the regions of Iraq and Iran with contribution of 21%.

We present an automatic aerosol classification method based solely on European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET) intensive optical parameters with the aim of building a network-wide classification tool that could provide near-real-time aerosol typing information. The presented method depends on a supervised learning technique and makes use of the Mahalanobis distance function that relates each un-classified measurement to a pre-defined aerosol type. As a first step (training phase), a reference dataset is set up consisting of already classified EARLINET data. Using this dataset, we defined eight aerosol classes: clean continental, polluted continental, dust, mixed dust, polluted dust, mixed marine, smoke, and volcanic ash. The effect of the number of aerosol classes has been explored, as well as the optimal set of intensive parameters to separate different aerosol types. Furthermore, the algorithm is trained with literature particle linear depolarization ratio values. As a second step (testing phase), we apply the method to an already classified EARLINET dataset and analyse the results of the comparison to this classified dataset. The predictive accuracy of the automatic classification varies between 59 % (minimum) and 90 % (maximum) from 8 to 4 aerosol classes, respectively, when evaluated against pre-classified EARLINET lidar. This indicates the potential use of the automatic classification to all network lidar data. Furthermore, the training of the algorithm with particle linear depolarization values found in literature further improves the accuracy: the accuracy range is 69–93 % from 8 (69 %) to 4 (93 %) aerosol classes, respectively. Additionally, the algorithm has proven to be highly versatile as it adapts to changes in the size of the training dataset and the number of aerosol classes and classifying parameters. Finally, the low computational time and demand for resources make the algorithm extremely suitable for the implementation within the Single Calculus Chain (SCC), the EARLINET centralised processing suite.

The EOLE multi-wavelength aerosol Ramandepolarization lidar, and the AIAS depolarization lidar, in synergy with a sun photometer (CIMEL), were used, in the period 2007-2016, to provide the vertical profiles of the aerosol optical properties over Athens, Greece. More than 30 biomass burning events (fresh and aged smoke particles) were observed, with smoke layers between 1.5 up to 4-5 km height, while their duration ranged from 1-3 days. Lidar ratio (LR) values ranged from 40-105 sr (at 355 nm) and from 40-100 sr (at 532 nm), while the linear particle depolarization ratio (LPDR) at both 355 and 532 nm, remained a) at 355 nm/532 nm) ranged from 0.3 to 2.1. Additionally, a case of a near-range transport of biomass burning aerosols arriving over Athens up to 4 km height, between 27 and 28 June 2016, was studied. For this case, we found LRs of the order of 70±5 sr (355 nm) and 65±15 sr (532 nm) and AEa(355 nm/532 nm) around 1.

Three years (2006–2008) of ground-based observations of the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) in the urban environment of Athens, in the Eastern Mediterranean, are analysed in this work. Measurements were acquired with a Multi-Filter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer at five wavelengths. The daily average AOD at 500 nm is 0.23, and the mean Ångström coefficient calculated between 415 and 867 nm is 1.41. The annual variability of AOD has a spring maximum dominated by coarse dust particles from the Sahara (AOD 0.34–0.42), while the diurnal pattern is typical for urban sites, with AOD steadily increasing throughout the day. The greatest contribution to the annually averaged AOD, accounting for almost 40%, comes from regional and local sources (namely the Istanbul metropolitan area, the extended areas of biomass burning around the north coast of the Black Sea, power plants spread throughout the Balkans and the industrial area in the Po valley, with average daily AOD in the range of 0.25–0.35). An additional important contribution (23%) is dust from Africa, whereas the rest of Europe contributes another 22%. The geographical distribution of the above sources in conjunction with the prevailing synoptic situation and contribution of local sources, lead to mixed types of aerosols over Athens, with highly variable contribution of fine and coarse particles to AOD in the range 10%–90%. This is the first long-term, ground based data set available for Athens, and it has also been used for the validation of satellite derived AOD by MODIS, showing good agreement on an annual basis, but with an overestimation of satellite AODs in the warm period.

In this study, aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements, from a MFR sun photometer operating in Athens, were compared with columnar dust loading estimations, from the BSC-DREAM model, during identified dust events, in order to extract the typical specific extinction cross-section for dust over the area. The selected urban environment of Athens provided us with the opportunity to investigate the mixing of dust and urban pollution and to estimate the contribution of the latter. The specific extinction cross-section for dust at 500 nm was found to be equal to σ500*=0.64±0.04 m2 g, typical for medium to large distances from dust sources, with weak wavelength dependence in the visible and near infrared band (0.4–0.9 μm). The model showed a tendency to underpredict AOD levels for increasing values of the Ångström exponent, indicative of fine particles of anthropogenic origin inside the boundary layer. On average we found an AOD under-prediction of 10–15% for Ångström exponents in the range of 0 to 1 and 30–40% in the range of 1 to 2. Additionally, modelled surface concentrations were evaluated against surface PM10 measurements. Model values were lower than measured surface concentrations by 30% which, in conjunction with large scatter, indicated that the effect of the boundary layer anthropogenic contribution to columnar dust loadings is amplified near the ground.

We present first retrievals of the Lidar-Radiometer Inversion Code (LIRIC), applied on combined lidar and sunphotometer data during a Saharan dust episode over Athens, Greece, on July 20, 2011. A full lidar dataset in terms of backscatter signals at 355, 532 and 1064 nm, as well as depolarization at 532 nm was acquired from the European Aerosol Research Network (EARLINET) station of Athens and combined with Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) data, in order to retrieve the concentration and extinction coefficient profiles of dust. The lidar measurements showed a free tropospheric layer between 1-5 km above Athens, with low Ångström exponent of ~0.5 and high particle depolarization ratio, ~25-30%, both values characteristic of dust particles. The application of LIRIC revealed high concentration profiles of non-spherical coarse particles in the layer, in the range of 0.04-0.07 ppb and a smaller fine particle component with concentrations of ~0.01 ppb. The extinction coefficients at 532 nm ranged between 50 and 90 Mm-1 for coarse non-spherical particles and between 25 and 50Mm-1 for fine particles. The retrievals were compared with modeled dust concentration and extinction coefficient profiles from the Dust Regional Atmospheric Modeling (BSC-DREAM8b), showing good agreement, especially for the coarse mode

At the end of August 2009, wild fires ravaged the north-eastern fringes of Athens destroying invaluable forest wealth of the Greek capital. In this work, the impact of these fires on the air quality of Athens and surface radiation levels is examined. Satellite imagery, smoke dispersion modeling and meteorological data confirm the advection of smoke under cloud-free conditions over the city of Athens. Lidar measurements showed that the smoke plume dispersed in the free troposphere and lofted over the city reaching heights between 2 and 4 km. Ground-based sunphotometric measurements showed extreme aerosol optical depth, reaching nearly 6 in the UV wavelength range, accompanied by a reduction up to 70% of solar irradiance at ground. The intensive aerosol optical properties, namely the Angstrom exponent, the lidar ratio, and the single scattering albedo, showed typical values for highly absorbing fresh smoke particles. In-situ air quality measurements revealed the impact of the smoke plume down to the surface with a slight delay on both the particulate and gaseous phase. Surface aerosols increase was encountered mainly in the fine mode with prominent elevation of OC and EC levels. Photochemical processes, studied via NO x titration of O3, were also shown to be different compared to typical urban photochemistry.

In this paper we studied the temporal evolution of the Planetary Boundary Layer height (PBLH) over the basin of Athens, Greece during a 5-year period (2011-2016) using data from the EOLE Raman lidar system. The lidar data (range-corrected lidar signals-RCS) were selected around 12:00 UTC and 00:00 UTC for a total of 332 cases: 165 days and 167 nights. Extended Kalman filtering techniques were used for the determination of the PBLH. Moreover, several well established techniques for the PBLH estimation based on lidar data were also tested for a total of 35 cases. Comparisons with the PBLH values derived from radiosonde data were also performed. The mean PBLH over Athens was found to be of the order of 1617±324 m at 12:00 UTC and of 892±130 m at 00:00 UTC, for the period examined. The mean PBLH growth rate was found to be about 170±64 m h-1 and 90±17 m h-1, during daytime and nighttime, respectively.