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Abstract
The regional aerosol transport model system COSMO-MUSCAT in its standard setup is initialized by vertical profiles of chemical substances as well as aerosol particles at the lateral boundaries of the European model domain. In the study presented here, lidar profiles of aerosol backscatter and sun photometer data are used to initialize vertical distribution of primary particles (PPM2.5) at the model boundaries. We compare model results for several case studies, initializing the model with: (1) climatological average profiles from EARLINET lidar stations near the model boundaries, averaging measurements for periods when air masses entering the model domain were clean; and (2) individual profiles from EARLINET stations in Europe, at the day preceding the model start. We also use (3) lidar profiles from the CALIPSO satellite to provide initial profiles of PPM2.5 as input at the boundaries of the model domain. In addition, (4) AERONET data from stations near the model boundary were used as boundary information. For all calculations, EARLINET and CALIPSO lidar profiles that are not taken as model input are used to evaluate the simulated extinction profiles for the different model cases.