Retrieval of aerosol backscatter and vertical wind from airborne coherent Doppler wind lidar measurements

Abstract

This study presents methods for the retrieval of calibrated backscatter and vertical wind speed from an airborne Doppler wind lidar (DWL). The backscatter retrieval relies on sun photometer measurements and the simultaneous retrievals of an airborne DWL at 2 μm and a ground-based aerosol lidar at 532 nm for the retrieval of the calibration constants. A refinement of the vertical wind retrieval algorithms based on speed and distance of ground returns will also be discussed. The derived methods were applied to a set of case studies from the SALTRACE campaign (http://www.pa.op.dlr.de/saltrace), which aimed to characterize the Saharan dust long range transport between Africa and the Caribbean. The calibrated backscatter measurements, first validated with a set of ground based lidar and CALIPSO measurements, were then used in combination with horizontal and vertical wind retrievals for the characterization of island induced gravity waves and the evaluation of an aerosol transport model.