Lidar-observed enhancement of aerosols in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere over the Tibetan Plateau induced by the Nabro volcano eruption

He, Q. S.; Li, C. C.; Ma, J. Z.; Wang, H. Q.; Yan, X. L.; Lu, J.; Liang, Z. R.; Qi, G. M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-11687-2014

Articles | Volume 14, issue 21

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-11687-2014

© Author(s) 2014. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Special issue:

Study of ozone, aerosols and radiation over the Tibetan Plateau...

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-11687-2014

© Author(s) 2014. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 21

Research article

|

06 Nov 2014

Research article |

| 06 Nov 2014

Lidar-observed enhancement of aerosols in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere over the Tibetan Plateau induced by the Nabro volcano eruption

Q. S. He, C. C. Li, J. Z. Ma, H. Q. Wang, X. L. Yan, J. Lu, Z. R. Liang, and G. M. Qi

Download

Final revised paper (published on 06 Nov 2014)
Preprint (discussion started on 31 Jan 2014)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

- Printer-friendly version

- Supplement

SC C66: 'Eruption of the Nabro Volcano in Summer 2011', P. Seifert, 04 Feb 2014
- AC C2297: 'review questions and answers1', Chengcai LI, 11 May 2014
RC C718: 'Major Revisions', Anonymous Referee #2, 25 Mar 2014
- AC C2300: 'review questions and answers2', Chengcai LI, 11 May 2014
RC C905: 'Interactive comment on “Enhancement of aerosols in UTLS over the Tibetan Plateau induced by deep convection during the Asian summer monsoon” by Q. S. He et al.', Anonymous Referee #1, 30 Mar 2014
- AC C2304: 'review questions and answers3', Chengcai LI, 11 May 2014

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Chengcai Li on behalf of the Authors (08 Jun 2014) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (10 Jun 2014) by Fangqun Yu

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (19 Jun 2014)

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (10 Jul 2014)

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (13 Jul 2014) by Fangqun Yu

AR by Chengcai Li on behalf of the Authors (24 Aug 2014) Author's response

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (27 Aug 2014) by Fangqun Yu

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (31 Aug 2014)

RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (20 Sep 2014)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

This paper presented the vertical distribution of aerosols measured by a micro pulse lidar at a station over the Tibetan Plateau during the months of July and August in 2010. A layer with a relatively large concentration of aerosols in the UTLS was observed and discussed. The quality of the data is very good as indicated by the comparison with the CALIOP satellite measurements, probably due to the remoteness and high altitude of the station and the relatively clean environment. There were interesting comments from the previous reviewers in terms of the source of the aerosols. The authors accepted the reviewers’ idea that the main source of the aerosols in the UTLS was due to the eruption of the Nabro volcano. Accordingly, the title of the paper was changed from “Enhancement of aerosols in UTLS over the Tibetan Plateau induced by deep convection during the Asian summer monsoon” to “Lidar-observed enhancement of aerosols in the UTLS over the Tibetan Plateau induced by the Nabro volcano eruption”. The content of the manuscript was also revised to reflect the changes.

I agree with the other reviewers’ comments in that eruption of the Nabro volcano was probably the major source of the enhanced aerosols in the UTLS observed in this paper. The transport of aerosols from the troposphere to the stratosphere due to deep convection is possible, but may not be as important as the eruption of the Nabro volcano. A recent study done by Devasthale & Fueglistaler (ACP, 10, 4573-4582, 2010)shows that very deep convection does occur over the Tibetan plateau during the summer monsoon season, particularly during July and August. However, they concluded that very deep convection over the Tibetan plateau is comparatively weak and it may only play a secondary role in troposphere-to-stratosphere transport. In my opinion, the revised version of the paper is acceptable for publication in ACP, and particularly suitable for the special issue: Study of ozone, aerosols and radiation over the Tibetan Plateau (SOAR-TP). There are still a few minor issues listed below that should be addressed before publication.

1. Page 1, line 25-29, “Daily averaged aerosol optical depths … of the enhanced aerosol layers in total AOD.”

There are two issues here. First, the observed AOD in UTLS varying from 0.075 to 0.142 is much larger than the numbers shown in previous version of the manuscript. I understand that the author revised the retrieval method for considering volcano aerosols and it might have changed the retrieved AOD. However, 0.075-0.142 still seems too large. Please verify these numbers. Secondly, 0.075-0.142 is not similar to the previous observed global average (0.017). It is much larger than the previous observations.

Please also check the AOD values on Page 8, line 25 and Page 11, line 28.

2.Page 7, line 19, At night time (00:00-07:00 and 2100-2400 LST)

Should be “00:00-07:00 UTC and 21:00-04:00 LST”

3.Page 8, line 10-16

Could you please explain why Shanghai is included in Table 1?

4.Page 9, line 1-3, “ when more aerosols entry the atmosphere …”

The higher AOD during the daytime is mainly due to stronger emissions. Convection can change the vertical distribution of aerosols, but not total aerosol load.

5.AODs shown in Figures 4 and 5 are not consistent:
1)AODs in Fig. 4 are much larger than those in Fig. 5
2)Fig. 5 shows that AOD during the first period (Aug. 6 – Aug. 12) is larger than that during the second period (Aug. 22 to 26), but Fig. 4 shows the opposite.

Hide

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (24 Sep 2014) by Fangqun Yu

AR by Chengcai Li on behalf of the Authors (02 Oct 2014) Author's response Manuscript