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2. Morphology and dynamics of the Pinatubo aerosol layer in the northern hemisphere as detected from a ship‐borne lidar
Author(s) -
Nardi B.,
Chanin M. L.,
Hauchecorne A.,
Avdyushin S. I.,
Tulinov G. F.,
Ivanov M. S.,
Kuzmenko B. N.,
Mezhuev I. R.
Publication year - 1993
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 - 10.1029/93gl00486
Subject(s) - aerosol , lidar , altitude (triangle) , atmospheric sciences , latitude , southern hemisphere , northern hemisphere , climatology , environmental science , geology , meteorology , geography , remote sensing , geodesy , geometry , mathematics
Scattering ratios of the Pinatubo aerosol layer obtained by the ship‐borne lidar of the Roscomhydromet of Russia on‐board PROFESSOR ZUBOV are presented. During a campaign primarily in the low‐latitude (8°N–43°N) Atlantic Ocean, 48 days of data were obtained within the 73 day period spanning 11‐July and 21‐September of 1991 [Avdyushin et al., 1992]. These data show the aerosol cloud to be primarily in the 16–27 km altitude region, with a high degree of variability in the vertical structure and in the longitudinal structure, and to a lesser degree, in the latitudinal structure. Scattering ratios of up to 50 were recorded in the multi‐layered structure which was often observed. These are the first lidar observations showing a high degree of zonal variability of the vertical structure of the aerosol layer. We show the latitudinal range of the Pinatubo aerosol cloud in the northern hemisphere over a 2 month period and estimate the latitudinal dispersion rate for the months of the measurements to be approximately 5° latitude per month. A clear periodic variability was observed in the altitude structure during the entire data‐set primarily within 8°N–22°N latitude and within the altitude region of the layer, from which a mean zonal wind profile was produced by a spectral analysis of the aerosol profiles.