Study of the Tropospheric Aerosol Structure Under Changing of the Air Mass Type from Lidar Observations in Tomsk

Abstract

The aerosol optical characteristics in the main tropospheric layers are investigated based on joint interpretation of data of multi-frequency lidar sensing (110 sessions) and results of modeling of back air mass trajectories. Methodical problems for separating layers with different scattering properties and estimating their vertical boundaries are considered. Three optical criteria are simultaneously used to distinguish aerosol layers from cloud formations, including the gradient of the backscattering coefficient, optical depth, and the depolarization ratio. High values of the lidar ratio (66 sr) and of the Angstrom exponent (1.62) in the shortwavelength spectral range are observed in the boundary layer for Arctic transport. At the same time, low values of these optical parameters are characteristic for Asian transport: the lidar ratio is 54 sr and the Angstrom exponent is 1.1, which is explained by different relative contributions of the coarse and fine aerosol fractions to the air mass.