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Lidar Remote Sensing of Aerosols Observation

A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Atmospheric Remote Sensing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 December 2020) | Viewed by 24966

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue seeks contributions on the latest results and developments in lidar remote sensing of geometrical, optical and microphysical aerosol properties across a host of instrument platforms (Raman, High-Spectral Resolution, DIAL, etc.), temporal and spatial scales, and from airborne-mounted lidars, regional ground-based lidar networks and global satellite missions. Moreover, this Special Issue pays attention to the emerging lidar techniques and measurements, as well as applications of lidar observation for aerosol model validation and assimilation. Submissions relating to lidar remote sensing of anthropogenic aerosols from industrial, biomass burning and agricultural sources and natural aerosols from volcanic eruptions, mineral dust, sea-salt and biogenic aerosols, as well as those relating to lidar field campaigns aiming to provide a comprehensive assessment of the aerosol-radiation interactions, boundary layer dynamic, aerosol-cloud interactions, aerosol spatial distribution, climate and health impact, are particularly encouraged.

Dr. Simone Lolli
Prof. Dr. Kai Qin
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Lidar
  • Aerosol-cloud interaction
  • Aerosols, Boundary layer
  • Air pollution
  • Radiative Transfer
  • Climate

Published Papers (7 papers)

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19 pages, 12427 KiB  
Article
Diurnal Evolution of the Wintertime Boundary Layer in Urban Beijing, China: Insights from Doppler Lidar and a 325-m Meteorological Tower
by Yuanjian Yang, Sihui Fan, Linlin Wang, Zhiqiu Gao, Yuanjie Zhang, Han Zou, Shiguang Miao, Yubin Li, Meng Huang, Steve Hung Lam Yim and Simone Lolli
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(23), 3935; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12233935 - 01 Dec 2020
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 2812
Abstract
The diurnal evolution of the atmospheric boundary layer—the lowermost part of the atmosphere where the majority of human activity and meteorological phenomena take place—is described by its depth. Additionally, the boundary layer height (BLH) and the turbulence intensity strongly impact the pollutant diffusion, [...] Read more.
The diurnal evolution of the atmospheric boundary layer—the lowermost part of the atmosphere where the majority of human activity and meteorological phenomena take place—is described by its depth. Additionally, the boundary layer height (BLH) and the turbulence intensity strongly impact the pollutant diffusion, especially during transition periods. Based on integrated observations from a 325-m meteorological tower and a Doppler Wind lidar in the center of Beijing, the entire diurnal cycle of urban BLH in December 2016 was characterized. Results highlight that the Doppler lidar exhibited it is well suited for monitoring convective BLH while it trudges in monitoring stable BLH, while a 325-m meteorological tower provided an important supplement for Doppler lidar under nocturnal boundary layer and heavily polluted conditions. For the diurnal cycle, under light wind condition, the pattern of urban BLH was largely modulated by thermal forcing of solar radiation and may partly be affected by wind speed. While under strong wind condition, the pattern of urban BLH was largely modulated both by thermal forcing and dynamical forcing. The present work also presented evidence for several new features in the morning and afternoon transitions of the urban boundary layer, showing the duration of the morning transition varied between 1 and 5 h, with the largest value occurring under weak wind with high PM2.5 concentration; while the afternoon transition ranged from 3 to 6 h, which was positively (negatively) correlated to wind speed (PM2.5 concentration). Our work highlights that weak wind speed (weak dynamic motion) and heavy aerosol pollution (weak thermal forcing due to the effect of cooling) can dramatically affect the evolution of the boundary layer. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lidar Remote Sensing of Aerosols Observation)
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21 pages, 3545 KiB  
Article
Modeling and Evaluation of the Systematic Errors for the Polarization-Sensitive Imaging Lidar Technique
by Zheng Kong, Zhenping Yin, Yuan Cheng, Yichen Li, Zhen Zhang and Liang Mei
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(20), 3309; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12203309 - 12 Oct 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2274
Abstract
Polarization lidar plays a significant role in characterizing the properties of cirrus clouds, classifying aerosol types, retrieving aerosol microphysical properties, etc. However, the retrieval reliability and accuracy of the linear volume depolarization ratio (LVDR) of atmospheric particles rely on many system factors, requiring [...] Read more.
Polarization lidar plays a significant role in characterizing the properties of cirrus clouds, classifying aerosol types, retrieving aerosol microphysical properties, etc. However, the retrieval reliability and accuracy of the linear volume depolarization ratio (LVDR) of atmospheric particles rely on many system factors, requiring intensive attention and massive efforts on system calibrations and error evaluations, etc. In this work, a theoretical model based on the Stokes–Mueller formalism has been established for the newly developed polarization-sensitive imaging lidar (PSI-Lidar) technique. The systematic errors introduced by the degree of linear polarization (DoLP) of the emitted laser beam, the offset angle, and the quantum efficiencies (QEs) and polarization extinction ratios (PERs) of the polarization-sensitive image sensor, were evaluated in detail for the PSI-Lidar at 450, 520, and 808 nm. Although the DoLP of typical multimode laser diodes is not very high, the influence of non-ideal polarized laser beam on the LVDR can be reduced to less than 1% by employing a high-PER linear polarizer to improve the DoLP of the transmitted laser beam. Laboratory measurements have revealed that the relative QEs of the image sensor with four polarized directions are independent of the total illumination intensity and indicate a good consistency with the factory relative QEs (less than 2% deviation). Meanwhile, the influence of the relative QEs on the LVDR can be well-calibrated from either experimental or factory relative QEs. Owing to the non-ideal PER of the polarization-sensitive image sensor, e.g., ≈74 at 808 nm, ≈470 at 450 nm, the crosstalk between received signals with different polarization states can significantly deteriorate the measurement accuracy for small LVDRs. A relative error of the LVDR less than 4% can be achieved at 450 and 520 nm with the LVDR varying from 0.004 to 0.3 for a PER uncertainty of ± 5%, by taking the polarization crosstalk effect into account. However, in order to achieve a relative error of less than 10% for a small atmospheric LVDR of 0.004 at 808 nm, the uncertainty of the PER should be less than ± 2.5%. The offset angle can be calculated based on the four polarized lidar signals and the PER values at the four polarization angles. It was found out that the retrieval error of the offset angle is less than 0.15° even with a large PER uncertainty (±20%), giving a negligible systematic error on the LVDR (less than 1%). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lidar Remote Sensing of Aerosols Observation)
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18 pages, 5273 KiB  
Article
Development of ZJU High-Spectral-Resolution Lidar for Aerosol and Cloud: Extinction Retrieval
by Da Xiao, Nanchao Wang, Xue Shen, Eduardo Landulfo, Tianfen Zhong and Dong Liu
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(18), 3047; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12183047 - 18 Sep 2020
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2930
Abstract
The retrieval of the extinction coefficients of aerosols and clouds without assumptions is the most important advantage of the high-spectral-resolution lidar (HSRL). The standard method to retrieve the extinction coefficient from HSRL signals depends heavily on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this work, [...] Read more.
The retrieval of the extinction coefficients of aerosols and clouds without assumptions is the most important advantage of the high-spectral-resolution lidar (HSRL). The standard method to retrieve the extinction coefficient from HSRL signals depends heavily on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this work, an iterative image reconstruction (IIR) method is proposed for the retrieval of the aerosol extinction coefficient based on HSRL data, this proposed method manages to minimize the difference between the reconstructed and raw signals based on reasonable estimates of the lidar ratio. To avoid the ill-posed solution, a regularization method is adopted to reconstruct the lidar signals in the IIR method. The results from Monte-Carlo (MC) simulations applying both standard and IIR methods are compared and these comparisons demonstrate that the extinction coefficient and the lidar ratio retrieved by the IIR method have smaller root mean square error (RMSE) and relative bias values than the standard method. A case study of measurements made by Zhejiang University (ZJU) HSRL is presented, and their results show that the IIR method not only obtains a finer structure of the aerosol layer under the condition of low SNR, but it is also able to retrieve more reasonable values of the lidar ratio. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lidar Remote Sensing of Aerosols Observation)
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19 pages, 6240 KiB  
Article
An Investigation of Vertically Distributed Aerosol Optical Properties over Pakistan Using CALIPSO Satellite Data
by Miao Zhang, Bo Su, Muhammad Bilal, Luqman Atique, Muhammad Usman, Zhongfeng Qiu, Md. Arfan Ali and Ge Han
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(14), 2183; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12142183 - 08 Jul 2020
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3672
Abstract
The vertically distributed aerosol optical properties are investigated over Pakistan utilizing the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) Level 2 products from 2007 to 2014. For a better understanding of the spatiotemporal characteristics of vertical aerosol layers, the interannual and seasonal [...] Read more.
The vertically distributed aerosol optical properties are investigated over Pakistan utilizing the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) Level 2 products from 2007 to 2014. For a better understanding of the spatiotemporal characteristics of vertical aerosol layers, the interannual and seasonal variations of nine selected aerosol parameters such as the AOD of the lowest aerosol layer (AODL), the base height of the lowest aerosol layer (HL), the top height of the highest aerosol layer (HH), the volume depolarization ratio of the lowest aerosol layer (DRL), the color ratio of the lowest aerosol layer (CRL), total AOD of all the aerosol layers (AODT), the number of aerosol feature layers (N), the thickness of the lowest aerosol layer (TL), the AOD proportion for the lowest aerosol layer (PAODL) for both day and night times are analyzed. The results show AODT increased slightly from 2007 to 2014 over Pakistan, and relatively high AODT exists over the Punjab and Sindh (southern region), which might be owing to the high level of economic development, frequent dust storms, and profound agricultural activities (anthropogenic emissions). AODT increases from north to south. The reason may be that the southern region is rapidly urbanized and is near the desert. The northern region is dominated by agricultural land, and cities are usually semi-urbanized. The highest AODT appears in summer compared to the other seasons, and during daytime compared to nighttime. The HL and HH vary significantly, owing to the topography of Pakistan. The N is relatively large over Punjab and Sindh compared to the other regions, which might be caused by relatively stronger atmospheric convections. The spatial distribution of the TL showed an inverse relationship with the topography as lower values are observed over elevated regions such as Gilgit-Baltistan and Jammu-Kashmir. The value of the PAODL indicates that 77% of the total aerosols are mainly concentrated in the lowest layer of the atmosphere over Pakistan. The higher values of DRL and CRL indicate non-spherical and large particles over Balochistan and Sindh, which might be related to the proximity to the desert. This study provides very useful information about vertically distributed aerosol optical properties which could help researchers and policymakers to regulate and mitigate air pollution issues of Pakistan. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lidar Remote Sensing of Aerosols Observation)
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27 pages, 8028 KiB  
Article
Impact of Sea Breeze Dynamics on Atmospheric Pollutants and Their Toxicity in Industrial and Urban Coastal Environments
by Patrick Augustin, Sylvain Billet, Suzanne Crumeyrolle, Karine Deboudt, Elsa Dieudonné, Pascal Flament, Marc Fourmentin, Sarah Guilbaud, Benjamin Hanoune, Yann Landkocz, Clémence Méausoone, Sayahnya Roy, François G. Schmitt, Alexei Sentchev and Anton Sokolov
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(4), 648; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12040648 - 15 Feb 2020
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 5952
Abstract
Sea breeze (SB) phenomena may strongly influence air quality and lead to important effects on human health. In order to study the impact of SB dynamics on the properties and toxicity of aerosols, an atmospheric mobile unit was deployed during a field campaign [...] Read more.
Sea breeze (SB) phenomena may strongly influence air quality and lead to important effects on human health. In order to study the impact of SB dynamics on the properties and toxicity of aerosols, an atmospheric mobile unit was deployed during a field campaign performed in an urbanized and industrialized coastal area in Northern France. This unit combines aerosol samplers, two scanning lidars (Doppler and elastic) and an air-liquid interface (ALI, Vitrocell®) in vitro cell exposure device. Our study highlights that after the passage of an SB front, the top of the atmospheric boundary layer collapses as the thermal internal boundary layer (TIBL) develops, which leads to high aerosol extinction coefficient values (>0.4 km−1) and an increase of PM2.5 and NOx concentrations in the SB current. The number-size distribution of particles indicates a high proportion of fine particles (with diameter below 500 nm), while the volume-size distribution shows a major mode of coarse particles centered on 2–3 µm. Individual particle analyses performed by cryo-transmission scanning electron microscopy (cryo-TSEM)-EDX highlights that submicronic particles contained a high fraction of secondary compounds, which may result from nucleation and/or condensation of condensable species (vapors or gaseous species after photo-oxidation). Secondary aerosol (SA) formation can be enhanced in some areas, by the interaction between the SB flow and the upper continental air mass, particularly due to the effect of both turbulence and temperature/humidity gradients between these two contrasting air masses. Potential areas of SA formation are located near the ground, during the SB front passage and in the vicinity of the SB current top. During the sea breeze event, an increase in the oxidative stress and inflammation processes in exposed lung cells, compared to the unexposed cells, can also be seen. In some instances, short singularity periods are observed during SB, corresponding to a double flow structure. It consists of two adjacent SB currents that induce an important increase of the TIBL top, improving the pollutants dispersion. This is associated with a substantial decrease of aerosol mass concentrations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lidar Remote Sensing of Aerosols Observation)
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14 pages, 6837 KiB  
Article
Monsoon Season Quantitative Assessment of Biomass Burning Clear-Sky Aerosol Radiative Effect at Surface by Ground-Based Lidar Observations in Pulau Pinang, Malaysia in 2014
by Simone Lolli, Wei Ying Khor, Mohd Zubir Matjafri and Hwee San Lim
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(22), 2660; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11222660 - 14 Nov 2019
Cited by 45 | Viewed by 3551
Abstract
Direct and indirect aerosol effects are still one of the largest uncertainties related to the Earth energy budget, especially in a wild and remote region like South-East Asia, where ground-based measurements are still difficult and scarce, while endemic cloudy skies make difficult active [...] Read more.
Direct and indirect aerosol effects are still one of the largest uncertainties related to the Earth energy budget, especially in a wild and remote region like South-East Asia, where ground-based measurements are still difficult and scarce, while endemic cloudy skies make difficult active and passive satellite observations. In this preliminary study, we analyzed and quantitatively assessed the differences between monsoon and inter-monsoon seasons, in terms of radiative effects at surface and columnar heating rate, of clear-sky biomass burning aerosols (no clouds) using ground-based lidar observations obtained with a 355 nm elastic lidar instrument, deployed since 2012 at the Physics Department of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The model-based back-trajectory analysis put in evidence that, during the monsoon seasons (November–March and June–September), the air masses advected towards the observational site transit over active fire hotspot regions, in contrast with the inter-monsoon season. In between the monsoon seasons (April–May, October), the atmosphere over Penang is constituted by local background urban aerosols that originate from road traffic emissions, domestic cooking, and industrial plants emissions. The analysis was carried out using the vertically-resolved profiles of the seasonal averaged aerosol optical properties (monsoon vs. inter-monsoon seasons), e.g., the atmospheric extinction coefficient, to evaluate the seasonal surface aerosol radiative effect and column heating rate differences through the Fu–Liou–Gu (FLG) radiative transfer model. The results put in evidence that the biomass burning advection during the monsoon season (especially during the South West monsoon from June to September) lowers the noon daytime incoming solar shortwave solar radiation reaching the Earth surface with respect to the local background conditions by 91.5 W/m2 (114–69 W/m2). The aerosols also lead to an averaged heating in the first kilometer of the atmosphere of about 4.9 K/day (6.4–3.4 W/m2). The two combined effects, i.e., less absorbed energy by Earth surface and warming of the first kilometer of the boundary layer, increase the low-level stability during monsoon seasons, with a possible reduction in cloud formation and precipitation. The net effect is to exacerbate the haze episodes, as the pollutants rest trapped into the boundary layer. Besides these considerations, the lidar measurements are of great interest in this particular world region and might be used for cal/val of the future space missions, e. g., Earthcare. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lidar Remote Sensing of Aerosols Observation)
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11 pages, 1133 KiB  
Technical Note
A Multi Linear Regression Model to Derive Dust PM10 in the Sahel Using AERONET Aerosol Optical Depth and CALIOP Aerosol Layer Products
by Jean-François Léon, Nadège Martiny and Sébastien Merlet
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(18), 3099; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12183099 - 22 Sep 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2886
Abstract
Due to a limited number of monitoring stations in Western Africa, the impact of mineral dust on PM10 surface concentrations is still poorly known. We propose a new method to retrieve PM10 dust surface concentrations from sun photometer aerosol optical depth (AOD) and [...] Read more.
Due to a limited number of monitoring stations in Western Africa, the impact of mineral dust on PM10 surface concentrations is still poorly known. We propose a new method to retrieve PM10 dust surface concentrations from sun photometer aerosol optical depth (AOD) and CALIPSO/CALIOP Level 2 aerosol layer products. The method is based on a multi linear regression model that is trained using co-located PM10, AERONET and CALIOP observations at 3 different locations in the Sahel. In addition to the sun photometer AOD, the regression model uses the CALIOP-derived base and top altitude of the lowermost dust layer, its AOD, the columnar total and columnar dust AOD. Due to the low revisit period of the CALIPSO satellite, the monthly mean annual cycles of the parameters are used as predictor variables rather than instantaneous observations. The regression model improves the correlation coefficient between monthly mean PM10 and AOD from 0.15 (AERONET AOD only) to 0.75 (AERONET AOD and CALIOP parameters). The respective high and low PM10 concentration during the winter dry season and summer season are well produced. Days with surface PM10 above 100 μg/m3 are better identified when using the CALIOP parameters in the multi linear regression model. The number of true positives (actual and predicted concentrations above the threshold) is increased and leads to an improvement in the classification sensitivity (recall) by a factor 1.8. Our methodology can be extrapolated to the whole Sahel area provided that satellite derived AOD maps are used in order to create a new dataset on population exposure to dust events in this area. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lidar Remote Sensing of Aerosols Observation)
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