Physical, optical and chemical properties of atmospheric aerosols under background conditions using remote sensing and in situ techniques

• Main Authors: Gialitaki, Anna, Γιαλιτάκη, Άννα
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Aristotle University Of Thessaloniki (AUTH) 2023
• Subjects: Ατμοσφαιρική τηλεπισκόπηση αερολυμάτων; Πόλωση; Αλγόριθμοι αναστροφής; Ανατολική Μεσόγειος; Αerosol remote sensing; Lidar system; Polarization; Inversion algorithms; Eastern Mediterranean; Γεωεπιστήμες και Επιστήμες Περιβάλλοντος; Φυσικές Επιστήμες; Μετεωρολογία και Επιστήμες της ατμόσφαιρας; Earth and Related Environmental Sciences; Natural Sciences; Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences; Aerosol Robotic Network
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10442/hedi/54296; https://doi.org/10.12681/eadd/54296

The topic of the present thesis is aerosol characterization in terms of their optical and microphysical properties. To this end, mainly ground-based remote sensing techniques as well as advanced scattering and inversion algorithms are utilized. The main objectives are summarized as follows: the first part presents the analysis of intensive aerosol optical properties for Sahara Desert dust, smoke in the lower and upper troposphere and long-range transported urban pollution, using multi-wavelength polarization Raman lidar observations. The analysis is further extended to derive particle microphysical properties through joint lidar and sun/sky-radiometer measurements. The objective is twofold: i) to add to the current body of knowledge regarding aerosol properties derived from remote sensing observation performed in locations representative of the broader Eastern Mediterranean region and ii) to examine whether the derived properties are in agreement with the existing climatology in Europe and worldwide. The measurements investigated were recorded mainly at the Panhellenic Geophysical observatory of Antikythera (PANGEA) but also at the Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure (ACTRIS) station of Finokalia. In the second part of the study, special emphasis is given to smoke aerosols found in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UTLS) as a result of extreme pyro-convention induced by large-scale wildfires. In particular, a near-spherical particle shape model is developed and utilized with the aim to reproduce the lidar derived properties of UTLS smoke which present significant differences compared to smoke found in the lower troposphere. Additionally, it is examined whether an extension of the current Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) scattering model to include the near-spherical particle shapes could be of benefit to the AERONET operational retrieval for UTLS smoke cases. While the primary focus of this thesis is on measurements performed at PANGEA, for this part the lidar data are supplemented ...