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Profiling of Aerosols

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S04 - O02
Automated Raman lidar measurements in the Amazon rain forest during the wet and dry season 2008

Holger Baars¹, D. Althausen¹, R. Engelmann¹, A. Ansmann¹, D. Müller², P. Artaxo³, T. Pauliquevis⁴, R. Souza⁵, S. T. Martin⁶

¹Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research
²Atmospheric Remote Sensing Laboratory, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology
³Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo
⁴Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics, and Atmospheric Science, University of São Paulo
⁵Amazon State University
⁶Harvard University

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Abstract
Observations of the vertical aerosol structure over the Amazon rain forest were performed with the automated multiwavelength-Raman-lidar Polly^XT in the framework of the European Integrated project on Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air Quality Interactions (EUCAARI). The almost continuous measurements were taken 50 km north of Manaus in Brazil at 60°W, 2°S from January 2008 to November 2008. With Polly^XT, vertical profiles of the backscatter coefficient at 355 nm, 532 nm, and 1064 nm, of the extinction coefficient at 355 nm and 532 nm, and of the particle depolarization ratio at 355 nm can be determined.
Out of 2500 hours of data, a typical observation case for the wet (November-
May) and dry season (June-October) is presented and
intensively discussed in terms of optical aerosol properties
and geometrical layer structure. Microphysical
aerosol properties like effective radius and volume concentration
are also calculated with an inversion algorithm.
The analysis reveals, that for the wet season
case aged biomass-burning aerosol from Africa dominated
optical aerosol properties above 800 m. For the
dry season case, biomass burning smoke from local
fires was observed.