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Abstract
Atmospheric probing by LIDAR (LIght Detection and Ranging) is able to obtain time dependent, three dimensional pictures of aerosol distributions in any region of interest. Aerosols serve as valuable tracers of air motion. We have investigated tropospheric aerosols at the National Institute of Research and Development for Optoelectronics, located in Magurele, near Bucharest, Romania (44°21’N latitude, 26°02’E longi-tude, 90 m a.s.l.) and near the Black Sea coast, during 2008 up to now with a multi-wavelength Raman lidar system-RALI. The laser radiation is emitted at 1064, 532 and 355nm and collected at 1064, 532p, 532s, 355, 607, 387 (Nitrogen vibrational Raman backscatter) and 408nm (Raman excited water vapor line). We performed both systematic measurements on a regular schedule in the frame of EARLINET, the first aerosol lidar network on a continental scale and also during dust intrusion alerts. The use of several laser wavelengths has enabled us to observe variations in backscatter profiles depending on the particle origins.
RALI has proved to be a field-worthy, reliable and self contained system for monitoring and profiling the density and motion of aerosols in the air.