Lidar ratios of stratospheric volcanic ash and sulfate aerosols retrieved from CALIOP measurements

Prata, Andrew T.; Young, Stuart A.; Siems, Steven T.; Manton, Michael J.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-8599-2017

Articles | Volume 17, issue 13

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-8599-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-8599-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 13

Research article

|

14 Jul 2017

Research article |

| 14 Jul 2017

Lidar ratios of stratospheric volcanic ash and sulfate aerosols retrieved from CALIOP measurements

Andrew T. Prata, Stuart A. Young, Steven T. Siems, and Michael J. Manton

Data sets

AIRS/Aqua L1B Infrared (IR) geolocated and calibrated radiances V005 AIRS Science Team/Moustafa Chahine https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datacollection/AIRIBRAD_005.html

CALIPSO/CALIOP Level 1B, Lidar Profile Data CALIPSO Science Team https://doi.org/10.5067/CALIOP/CALIPSO/CAL_LID_L1-Standard-V4-00_L1B-004

CALIPSO/CALIOP Level 2, Lidar Aerosol Layer Data CALIPSO Science Team https://doi.org/10.5067/CALIOP/CALIPSO/CAL_LID_L2_05kmALay-Prov-V3-30_L2-003.30

Short summary

We have studied the optical properties of ash-rich and sulfate-rich volcanic aerosols by analysing satellite observations of three different volcanic eruptions. Our results indicate that ash particles have distinctive optical properties when compared to sulfates. We expect our results will improve space-borne lidar detection of volcanic aerosols and provide new insight into their interaction with the atmosphere and solar radiation.