Application of a lidar system to the estimation of the ambient aerosol source

This work presents the aerosol vertical profiles obtained by means of an elastic backscatter ground-based LIDAR, using the 532-nm radiation from a Nd:YAG laser. Simultaneously, the aerosol size distribution in the ambient air was continuously monitored at ground level using an aerosol spectrometer that performs particulate measurements by laser light scattering. Additional information about aerosol index was obtained from TOMS data. The vertical profiles have been useful to relate satellite observations with ground level measurements. In our experiment, deployed on the Iberian Peninsula, an estimation of the provenance of aerosols was made by analyzing the results provided by these instruments, jointly with synoptic meteorological information available.