Monitoring Dust Events Using Doppler Lidar and Ceilometer in Iceland

Ground-based lidars and ceilometers are widely used for dust and volcanic ash observation around the world. This is particularly interesting in Iceland where high-altitude dust events occur frequently during strong wind conditions and volcanic eruptions. To explore the possible application of such t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Atmosphere
Main Authors: Shu Yang, Jana Preißler, Matthias Wiegner, Sibylle von Löwis, Guðrún Nína Petersen, Michelle Maree Parks, David Christian Finger
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11121294
https://doaj.org/article/1ca7c9951fb0474aa32b626d02950e56
Description
Summary:Ground-based lidars and ceilometers are widely used for dust and volcanic ash observation around the world. This is particularly interesting in Iceland where high-altitude dust events occur frequently during strong wind conditions and volcanic eruptions. To explore the possible application of such technologies in Iceland for monitoring dust events, we used a combination of Doppler wind lidars with depolarization channels, ceilometers, and other instruments, to monitor two dust events that occurred in Iceland during summer 2019. We applied a verified ceilometer data processing procedure with customized local corrections and developed a new procedure to process Doppler lidar data for aerosols measurements. Both lidar and ceilometer observations can be used to detect the dust layer and reveal the temporal and vertical distribution of dust aerosols in Iceland. The depolarization ratio measurements indicate that the weather conditions, e.g., relative humidity, could have a significant impact on lidar measurements. We conclude that using Doppler wind lidar and ceilometer measurements to monitor volcanic and sedimentary aerosols is possible and may be used to provide important information to the scientific community.