Temporal variations in optical and microphysical properties of mineral dust and biomass burning aerosol derived from daytime Raman lidar observations over Warsaw, Poland

Publication date: November 2017
Source:Atmospheric Environment, Volume 169
Author(s): Lucja Janicka, Iwona S. Stachlewska, Igor Veselovskii, Holger Baars
In July 2013, favorable weather conditions caused a severe events of advection of biomass burning particles of Canadian forest fires to Europe. The smoke layers were widely observed, especially in Western Europe. An unusual atmospheric aerosol composition was measured at the EARLINET site in Warsaw, Central Poland, during a short event that occurred between 11 and 21 UTC on 10th July 2013. Additionally to the smoke layer, mineral dust was detected in a separate layer. The long-range dust transport pathway followed an uncommon way; originating in Western Sahara, passing above middle Atlantic, and circulating over British Islands, prior to its arrival to Poland. An effective radius of 560 nm was obtained for Saharan dust over Warsaw. This relatively small effective radius is likely due to the long time of the transport. The aerosol-polarization-Raman PollyXT-UW lidar was used for a successful daytime Raman retrieval of the aerosol optical properties at selected times during this short event. The aerosol vertical structure during the inflow over Warsaw in terms of optical properties and depolarization was analyzed, indicating clear distinction of the layers. The microphysical properties were inverted from the lidar derived optical data for selected ranges as representing the smoke and the mineral dust. For smoke, the effective radius was in the range of 0.29–0.36 μm and the complex refractive index 1.36 + 0.008i, on average. For dust, the values of 0.33–0.56 μm and 1.56 + 0.004i were obtained. An evolution of the aerosol composition over Warsaw during the day was analyzed.



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