Lidar-Radiometer Inversion Code (LIRIC) for the retrieval of vertical aerosol properties from combined lidar/radiometer data: development and distribution in EARLINET

Anatoli Chaikovsky , Oleg Dubovik (1) , Brent Holben , Andrey Bril , Philippe Goloub (1) , Didier Tanré (1) , Gelsomina Pappalardo , Ulla Wandinger , Ludmila Chaikovskaya , Sergey Denisov , Jan Grudo , Anton Lopatin , Yana Karol , Tatsiana Lapyonok (1) , Vassilis Amiridis , Albert Ansmann , Arnoud Apituley , Lucas Allados-Arboledas , Ioannis Binietoglou , Antonella Boselli , Giuseppe d'Amico , Volker Freudenthaler , David Giles , María José Granados-Muñoz , Panayotis Kokkalis , Doina Nicolae , Sergey Oshchepkov , Alex Papayannis , Maria Rita Perrone , Alexander Pietruczuk , Francesc Rocadenbosch , Michaël Sicard , Ilya Slutsker , Camelia Talianu , Ferdinando de Tomasi , Alexandra Tsekeri , Janet Wagner , Xuan Wang

1 LOA - Laboratoire d’Optique Atmosphérique - UMR 8518

This paper presents a detailed description of LIRIC (LIdar-Radiometer Inversion Code) algorithm for simultaneous processing of coincident lidar and radiometric (sun photometric) observations for the retrieval of the aerosol concentration vertical profiles. As the lidar/radiometric input data we use measurements from European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET) lidars and collocated sun-photometers of Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET). The LIRIC data processing provides sequential inversion of the combined lidar and radiometric data. The algorithm starts with the estimations of column-integrated aerosol parameters from radiometric measurements followed by the retrieval of height dependent concentrations of fine and coarse aerosols from lidar signals using integrated column characteristics of aerosol layer as a priori constraints. The use of polarized lidar observations allows us to discriminate between spherical and non-spherical particles of the coarse aerosol mode.The LIRIC software package was implemented and tested at a number of EARLINET stations. Intercomparison of the LIRIC-based aerosol retrievals was performed for the observations by seven EARLINET lidars in Leipzig, Germany on 25 May 2009. We found close agreement between the aerosol parameters derived from different lidars that supports high robustness of the LIRIC algorithm. The sensitivity of the retrieval results to the possible reduction of the available observation data is also discussed.

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]

Anatoli Chaikovsky, Oleg Dubovik, Brent Holben, Andrey Bril, Philippe Goloub, et al.. Lidar-Radiometer Inversion Code (LIRIC) for the retrieval of vertical aerosol properties from combined lidar/radiometer data: development and distribution in EARLINET. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 2016, 9, pp.1181-1205. ⟨10.5194/amt-9-1181-2016⟩. ⟨insu-03686213⟩