April 18, 2006
Aerosols Aloft
Today's timeseries shows that there was a well defined boundary layer up to 1.75 km, and instead of seeing a clear atmosphere above 1.75 km, as expected, there were residual aerosols up to 3 km as well as aerosol plumes at 5 km and from 7 km to 8 km. The lidar color ratio data (not shown) indicates that the 5 km plume was large particles, however the data were too noisy at 8 km to determine any information about the 7 km plume.
This image is not calibrated. ELF was running today because it looked very clear; perfect conditions for system calibration after some minor maintenance. Another point is awarded to serendipity.
The lidar data confirms what was indicated in the photographs. Today was fairly clear at the surface, but the large peak in scattering seen around the sun indicated aerosols were present. I will also note on the side that large particles scatter more strongly in the forward direction than small particles.
