25th Agricultural and Forest Meteorology/12th Air Pollution/4th Urban Environment

Thursday, 23 May 2002: 11:29 AM
Applications of an airborne UV Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL)system to regional scale ozone and aerosols
William B. Grant, NASA/LRC, Hampton, VA; and E. V. Browell
NASA Langley Research Center has developed and fielded an airborne UV DIAL system capable of measuring vertical profiles of ozone and aerosols. The system uses flashlamp-pumped Nd:YAG lasers to pump dye lasers, with the residual 1.06 micron and 600 nm radiation used for aerosols and a pair of frequency-doubled dye laser wavelengths near 300 nm used for ozone measurements. Depending on whether wavelengths <300 nm or >300 nm are used, the ozone measurements extend from near the surface to the tropopause or up to about 15 km above the tropopause. The original version of this system has been in use for 20 years, and the improved version for 5 years. Together, the systems have been used in over 20 major, mainly international, field campaigns, which have included flights near or over all 7 continents. Examples of measurements from various field campaigns that demonstrate the usefulness of the UV DIAL system for urban and regional studies will be presented, including some from over or off the coast of the U.S. and off the coast of East Asia. The examples will include urban/industrial plumes, stratospheric intrusions, frontal passages with heavy pollution on one side, warm conveyor belt transport from the tropics, boundary layer height variations, and air mass characterizations using both ozone and aerosol information.

Supplementary URL: http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/lidar/lidar.htm