Strong saharan dust event detected at LALINET LOA-UNAL station, over Medellin, Colombia by active and passive remote sensing

Abstract

Passive and active remote sensing techniques are well used for understanding optical and microphysical characteristics of aerosol layers. Lidar has the ability to resolve stratifications of the complex vertical structures in the atmosphere and determine the existence of aerosols which has been transported for long-ranges through the evaluation of the optical properties such as particle backscatter and extinction coefficients, among others. CIMEL sunphotometer data (AERONET network) give information about optical properties such as Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), Single Scattering Albedo (SSA), and Angström Exponent (AE) and microphysical properties such as size distribution. The LOAUNAL lidar station as part of the LALINET (Latin American LIdar NETwork) [1], involves an elastic coaxial system operating in zenith mode used for monitoring the atmosphere at MedellínColombia (6.26°N, 75.58ºW, 1470 m asl). This work presents a Saharan dust even over Medellín, Colombia, 27th June, 2014, observed simultaneously with lidar, sun-photometer and complementary global mass transport model HYSPLIT.