Details:

Journal Title:
Remote Sensing
Personal Author:
Li, Dingdong ; Wu, Yonghua ; Gross, Barry ; Moshary, Fred
Li, Dingdong ; Wu, Yonghua ; Gross, Barry ; Moshary, Fred Less -
NOAA Program & Office:
CESSRST (Cooperative Science Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technologies)
Description:
Continuous observation and quantitative retrieval of aerosol backscatter coefficients are important in the study of air quality and climate in metropolitan areas such as New York City. Ceilometers are ideal for this application, but aerosol backscatter coefficient retrievals from ceilometers are challenging and require proper calibration. In this study, we calibrate the ceilometer (Lufft CHM15k, 1064 nm) system constant with the molecular backscatter coefficient and evaluate the calibrated profiles with other independent methods, including the water-phase cloud method and comparison with the NASA Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) attenuated backscatter coefficient profile. Multiple-day calibration results show a stable system constant with a relative uncertainty of about 7%. We also evaluate the overlap correction for the CHM15k ceilometer (provided by Lufft) with a Vaisala CL-31 ceilometer, and the results show good consistency between two ceilometers’ range-corrected signal (RCS) profiles above 200 m. Next, we implement a forward iterative method to retrieve aerosol backscatter coefficients from continuous ceilometer measurements. In the retrieval, the lidar ratio is constrained by the co-located NASA AERONET radiometer aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrieval and agrees with the AERONET lidar-ratio products, derived from aerosol microphysical parameters. The aerosol backscatter coefficient retrievals are validated with co-located elastic-Raman lidar retrievals and indicate a good correlation (R2≥0.95) in the planetary boundary layer (PBL). Furthermore, a case study shows that the ceilometer retrieved aerosol extinction coefficient profiles can be used to estimate the AOD of the PBL and the aloft plumes. Finally, simulations of the uncertainty of aerosol backscatter coefficient retrieval show that a calibration error of 10% results in 10–20% of relative error in the aerosol backscatter coefficient retrievals, while relative error caused by a lidar-ratio error of 10% is less than 4% in the PBL.
Keywords:
[+]
Aerosols Calibration Ceilometer NOAA Office of Education
Source:
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(18), 3626
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13183626
Document Type:
Journal Article
Funding:
Grant no. NA16SEC4810008
Rights Information:
CC BY
Compliance:
Submitted
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:77b0670b7e17759be615224c5e38a7ed99c07b8a5a518a290c589e3916ff34f0
Download URL:
https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/43181/noaa_43181_DS1.pdf
File Type:

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