Latin American Lidar Network (LALINET) for aerosol research: Diagnosis on network instrumentation

LALINET (Latin American Lidar Network), previously known as ALINE, is the first fully operative lidar network for aerosol research in South America, probing the atmosphere on regular basis since September 2013. The general purpose of this network is to attempt to fill the gap in the knowledge on aerosol vertical distribution over South America and its direct and indirect impact on weather and climate by the establishment of a vertically-resolved dataset of aerosol properties. Similarly to other lidar research networks, most of the LALINET instruments are not commercially produced and, consequently, configurations, capabilities and derived-products can be remarkably different among stations. It is a fact that such un-biased 4D dataset calls for a strict standardization from the instrumental and data processing point of view. This study has been envisaged to investigate the ongoing network configurations with the aim of highlighting the instrumental strengths and weaknesses of LALINET.