Vertical aerosol distribution in the southern hemispheric midlatitudes as observed with lidar in Punta Arenas, Chile (53.2°&thinsp;S and 70.9°&thinsp;W), during ALPACA

Foth, Andreas; Kanitz, Thomas; Engelmann, Ronny; Baars, Holger; Radenz, Martin; Seifert, Patric; Barja, Boris; Fromm, Michael; Kalesse, Heike; Ansmann, Albert

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6217-2019

Articles | Volume 19, issue 9

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6217-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6217-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 9

Research article

|

10 May 2019

Research article |

| 10 May 2019

Vertical aerosol distribution in the southern hemispheric midlatitudes as observed with lidar in Punta Arenas, Chile (53.2° S and 70.9° W), during ALPACA

Andreas Foth, Thomas Kanitz, Ronny Engelmann, Holger Baars, Martin Radenz, Patric Seifert, Boris Barja, Michael Fromm, Heike Kalesse, and Albert Ansmann

Data sets

V4.10 CALIPSO CALIOP 5 km aerosol profile product M. Vaughan, M. Pitts, C. Trepte, D. Winker, P. Detweiler, A. Garnier, B. Getzewitch, W. Hunt, J. Lambeth, K.-P. Lee, P. Lucker, T. Murray, S. Rodier, T. Trémas, A. Bazureau, and J. Pelon https://doi.org/10.5067/CALIOP/CALIPSO/LID_L2_05kmAPro-Standard-V4-10

Model code and software

Software for automated trajectory analysis: trace M. Radenz and P. Seifert https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2576558

Short summary

In this study, we present the vertical aerosol distribution in the pristine region of the southern tip of South America determined by ground-based and spaceborne lidar observations. Most aerosol load is contained within the planetary boundary layer up to about 1200 m. The free troposphere is characterized by a very low aerosol concentration but a frequent occurrence of clouds. Lofted aerosol layers were rarely observed and, when present, were characterized by very low optical thicknesses.