Summary of Micro-Pulse Lidar Data Obtained During NASA's DISCOVER-AQ Field Missions

NASA's DISCOVER-AQ mission comprises of four regional-scale intensive studies located in Baltimore-Washington (2011), California San Joaquin Valley (2013), Texas Houston(2013), and Denver Front Range (2014) areas. This mission involved multiple research aircraft with coordinated overpasses of instrumented ground sites with the goal of understanding the development of pollution events, and how surface observations relate to aircraft and satellite measurements. During DISCOVER AQ, a number of Micro-Pulse Lidar (MPL) systems were deployed to various ground sites to provide vertical profile information to compliment airborne and surface measurements. The baseline measurement obtained from an MPL is an attenuated backscatter vertical profile at the mid-visible wavelength of 527 nm or 532 nm (dependent on instrument model), that results from molecular and particulate backscatter from the atmosphere. Systems recorded data at 30 meter vertical and 1 minute time resolutions. The baseline MPL data provide layer and cloud height information, while more advanced retrievals using co-located sun-photometer data enable determination of extinction-to-backscatter ratios and generation of extinction profiles. Some of the MPLs also had cross-polarization measurement capability that provided vertical profiles of particulate depolarization. The MPL systems were often helpful in capturing aerosol events, filling in data gaps during nighttime and non-flight days when aircraft observations were not present. In addition to providing real-time of cloud and aerosol layer information during the field campaign, MPL data from DISCOVER-AQ also contributed to a variety studies, including aerosol-cloud interactions, model comparisons, mixed layer dynamics, bay breeze impacts, and trace gas studies. In this presentation, an overview of DISCOVER-AQ MPL deployments and data products will be provided, along with case studies and comparisons with the HSRL airborne lidar data. Results from the MPL systems have been processed and uploaded to NASA's DISCOVER-AQ data archive located at: http://www-air.larc.nasa.gov/missions/discover-aq/discover-aq.html where data are available to the research community at-large.