A51I-0193
High-Spectral Resolution Lidar Observations of Aerosols Between Northern California and Hawaii: Their Optical Properties and Possible Origins Using Back Trajectory Analysis.

Friday, 18 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Bruce Morley, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, United States, R. Bradley Pierce, NOAA, National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, Madison, WI, United States and Edwin W Eloranta, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States
Abstract:
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) was flown on the National Science Foundation (NSF) Gulfstream V (GV) aircraft as part of the instrumentation package for the Cloud System Evolution in the Trades (CSET) field study. Complex aerosol layers, at both low and elevated levels were observed between the west coast of California and Hawaii. The optical properties of aerosols that can be measured by the HSRL are backscatter cross-section, depolarization and extinction cross-section. The Real-time Air Quality Modeling System (RAQMS) will be used to investigate the chemical and aerosol histories of the aerosols observed by the HSRL using back-trajectory analysis. One of the science goals of CSET is to look at the same air mass on the return to California as were observed on the flight to Hawaii and this objective may allow us to look at the evolution of aerosol properties if we are successful in sampling the same aerosol features on successive flights.