Assessment of Optical Properties Variation and Discrimination of Aerosol and Cloud with a Multiple-Wavelength Elastic-Raman Lidar in New York City

Aerosol-cloud interactions have a high impact on the Earth’s energy budget, which is an important component of climate research. The radiative effects of aerosol-cloud interaction is still highly uncertain and the accuracy of their representation in climate models depends on the accuracy of their measurements. This study evaluates the potential to determine the existence of hydrated aerosols near clouds based on ground-based lidar and satellite data in the urban area of New York city. The main goal of this study is to examine aerosol backscatter lidar and Doppler wind lidar measurements to identify patterns between aerosol and cloud interaction. In this presentation, we use the range-resolved multi-wavelength backscatter profiles by a lidar to visually represent the aerosols and clouds. We employ an aerosol-cloud discrimination algorithm to separate aerosols and clouds according to their color ratio. The spatial variabilities or differences of atmospheric backscatter and color-ratio are analyzed under the cloudy and clear skies, respectively. Then, we use a co-located Doppler wind lidar measurement to evaluate the updraft and downdraft occurrences and their potential connection with cloud and aerosol interactions. Finally, we will make a preliminary case analysis of satellite retrievals of aerosols and clouds over the twilight zone between aerosols and clouds measured by our ground lidars.