Aerosol content survey by mini N2-Raman lidar: Application to local and long-range transport aerosols

This study shows an aerosol content survey in the low and middle troposphere over Paris with a compact and light Nitrogen-Raman lidar which has been recently developed by the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA) and LEOSPHERE company. This eye-safe and wide field-of-view system (full overlap between 150 and 200 m) is particularly well-adapted to air pollution survey in the vicinity of Megalopolis. Extinction-to-backscatter coefficient (so-called Lidar Ratio LR) profiles obtained with a Tikhonov regularization scheme are presented for long-range transport events of aerosols (volcanic ash plume LR = 48 ± 10 sr, and desert dust, LR = 45 ± 8 sr) which may contribute to the local load of aerosols emitted by traffic and industries in Megalopolis. Due to an insufficient signal to noise ratio (SNR < 30), a new dichotomous algorithm has been developed to perform daytime inversions every hour which is in accordance with the typical time evolution of aerosols within the planetary boundary layer. This inversion scheme is based on the constraint of the elastic channel with the aerosol optical depth (between typically 0.2 and 0.7 km) determined with the N2-Raman channel and thus only gives access to an equivalent LR between 0.2 and 0.7 km with a relative uncertainty lower than 15%. This approach has been applied to retrieve diurnal cycle of LR for polluted continental aerosols over Paris and is compared with Tikhonov regularization applied during the night. We found a mean value of 85 ± 18 sr for polluted continental aerosols which is in agreement with other studies performed around the Paris urban area. Results for aerosol optical properties are presented and the error sources are discussed for each approach.

► A compact nitrogen Raman lidar is used to survey aerosol content over Paris.
► Nighttime lidar measurements are inverted with a Thikonov regularization scheme.
► Dichotomous algorithm developed to perform daytime inversions every hour.
► Monte Carlo simulations performed to assessed uncertainties on LR with each method.
► Lidar ratios of 48, 45 and 85 sr found for volcanic, dust and pollution aerosols.