Nabro aerosol evolution observed jointly by lidars at a mid-latitude site and CALIPSO

Evolution of the Nabro volcanic aerosols from initially-localized plumes to a decaying hemispherically-covered layer was jointly observed by ground-based lidars at Wuhan (30.5°N, 114.4°E), China and CALIPSO. During the aerosol plume formation period, from the Nabro eruption to early July 2011, the lidar backscatter ratio related to the Nabro aerosols above Wuhan varied strongly both in vertical structure and intensity, suggesting that the Nabro aerosol distribution was horizontally inhomogeneous. The stratospheric aerosol optical depth (AOD) from CALIPSO shows that the Nabro plume first circled around the Asian monsoon anticyclone and then gradually fulfilled the whole anticyclone area with a net aerosol enhancement, which may reflect a gas-particle conversion (from sulfur dioxide gas) and/or particle injection from the upper troposphere. During the horizontal dispersion period, from early July to mid-August 2011, the stratospheric AOD over Wuhan declined rapidly since the Nabro particles were transported throughout the northern hemisphere. A nearly horizontally-uniform volcanic aerosol layer was formed. During the local cleansing period, from mid-August to the end of 2011, the Nabro aerosol layer over Wuhan had a single-peak structure and decayed uniformly. The corresponding e-folding decay time for the layer AOD is ∼130 days. The lidar measurements at Wuhan gave a small depolarization ratio and large backscatter-related Ångström exponent for the Nabro aerosols on 8 July, suggesting that the majority of these aerosols were spherical and small. The effective radius and total mass for the Nabro aerosol particles were estimated to be ∼0.26 μm and ∼0.32 Tg respectively.