Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 3 1 2003 10.5194/acpd-3-445-2003 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/3/445/2003/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/3/445/2003/acpd-3-445-2003.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/3/445/2003/acpd-3-445-2003.pdf 445 477 2003-02-03 Lidar and in situ observations of continental and Saharan aerosol: closure analysis of particles optical and physical properties G. P. Gobbi F. Barnaba R. van Dingenen J. P. Putaud M. Mircea M. C. Facchini Istituto di Scienze dell’Atmosfera e del Clima-CNR, Roma, Italy European Commission Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy Istituto di Scienze dell’Atmosfera e del Clima-CNR, Bologna, Italy Single wavelength polarization lidar observations collected at Mt. Cimone (44.2° N, 10.7° E, 1870 m a.s.l.) during the June 2000 MINATROC campaign are analyzed to derive tropospheric profiles of aerosol extinction, depolarization, surface area and volume. Lidar retrievals for the 2170–2245 m level are compared to the same variables as computed from in situ measurements of particles size distributions, performed at the mountain top Station (2165 m a.s.l.) by a differential mobility analyzer (DMA) and an optical particle counter (OPC). A sensitivity analysis of this closure experiment shows that mean relative differences between the backscatter coefficients obtained by the two techniques undergo a 30% decrease when hygroscopic growth to ambient humidity is considered for the DMA dataset, otherwise representative of dry aerosols. Minimization of differences between lidar and size distribution-derived backscatter coefficients allowed to find values of the "best" refractive index, specific to each measurement. These results show the refractive index to increase for air masses proceeding from either continental Europe or Africa with respect to Mediterranean air. Lidar depolarization was observed to minimize mainly in airmasses proceeding from Western Europe, thus indicating a spherical, i.e. liquid nature for such aerosols. This analysis shows average relative differences between lidar and in-situ observations of 10% for backscatter, 37% for extinction and 44% for surface area and volume. These values are within the expected combined errors of the lidar and in situ retrievals. However, average differences strongly decrease during the Saharan dust transport event, when a lidar signal inversion model considering non-spherical scatterers is employed. The closure obtained between particle counter and lidar-derived aerosol surface area and volume constitutes a validation of the technique providing the latter estimates on the basis of single-wavelength lidar observations.