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Californian Wildfire Smoke Over Europe: A First Example of the Aerosol Observing Capabilities of Aeolus Compared to Ground‐Based Lidar
Author(s) -
Baars Holger,
Radenz Martin,
Floutsi Athena Augusta,
Engelmann Ronny,
Althausen Dietrich,
Heese Birgit,
Ansmann Albert,
Flament Thomas,
Dabas Alain,
Trapon Dimitri,
Reitebuch Oliver,
Bley Sebastian,
Wandinger Ulla
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2020gl092194
Subject(s) - lidar , aerosol , environmental science , plume , smoke , depolarization ratio , atmospheric sciences , extinction (optical mineralogy) , biomass burning , meteorology , remote sensing , geology , mineralogy , physics
Abstract In September 2020, extremely strong wildfires in the western United States of America (i.e., mainly in California) produced large amounts of smoke, which was lifted into the free troposphere. These biomass‐burning‐aerosol (BBA) layers were transported from the US west coast toward central Europe within 3–4 days turning the sky milky and receiving high media attention. The present study characterizes this pronounced smoke plume above Leipzig, Germany, using a ground‐based multiwavelength‐Raman‐polarization lidar and the aerosol/cloud product of ESA’s wind lidar mission Aeolus. An exceptional high smoke‐AOT >0.4 was measured, yielding to a mean mass concentration of 8 μg m −3 . The 355 nm lidar ratio was moderate at around 40–50 sr. The Aeolus‐derived backscatter, extinction and lidar ratio profiles agree well with the observations of the ground‐based lidar PollyXT considering the fact that Aeolus’ aerosol and cloud products are still preliminary and subject to ongoing algorithm improvements.