Search results for "Optics"

Microphysical and optical properties of Arctic mixed-phase clouds. The 9 April 2007 case study.

2009

Abstract. Airborne measurements in Arctic boundary-layer stratocumulus were carried out near Spitsbergen on 9 April 2007 during the Arctic Study of Tropospheric Aerosol, Clouds and Radiation (ASTAR) campaign. A unique set of co-located observations is used to describe the cloud properties, including detailed in situ cloud microphysical and radiation measurements along with airborne and co-located spaceborne remote sensing data (Lidar on Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations [CALIPSO] and radar on CloudSat satellites). The CALIPSO profiles evidence a cloud top temperature which varies between −24°C and −21°C. The in situ cloud observations reveal that the attenua…

Lidar characterization of the Arctic atmosphere during ASTAR 2007: Four cases studies of boundary layer, mixed-phase and multi-layer clouds

2010

During the Arctic Study of Tropospheric Aerosol, Clouds and Radiation (ASTAR), which was conducted in Svalbard in March and April 2007, tropospheric Arctic clouds were observed with two ground-based backscatter lidar systems (micro pulse lidar and Raman lidar) and with an airborne elastic lidar. In the time period of the ASTAR 2007 campaign, an increase in low-level cloud cover (cloud tops below 2.5 km) from 51% to 65% was observed above Ny-Ålesund. Four different case studies of lidar cloud observations are analyzed: With the ground-based Raman lidar, a layer of spherical particles was observed at an altitude of 2 km after the dissolution of a cloud. The layer probably consisted of small h…

Determination and analysis of in situ spectral aerosol optical properties by a multi-instrumental approach

2014

Continuous in situ measurements of aerosol optical properties were conducted from 29 June to 29 July 2012 in Granada (Spain) with a seven-wavelength Aethalometer, a Multi-Angle Absorption Photometer, and a three-wavelength integrating nephelometer. The aim of this work is to describe a methodology to obtain the absorption coefficients (babs) for the different Aethalometer wavelengths. In this way, data have been compensated using algorithms which best estimate the compensation factors needed. Two empirical factors are used to infer the absorption coefficients from the Aethalometer measurements: C – the parameter describing the enhancement of absorption by particles in the filter matrix due …

In-line holography of cloud volumes applied to the measurement of raindrops and snowflakes

1998

Abstract The ground-based HODAR (HOlographic Droplet and Aerosol Recording) of the University of Mainz has been operational since 1989 on the Kleiner Feldberg Mountain Observatory near Frankfurt/Main, Germany, in a `small volume' configuration. With this setup an air volume of approximately 1 l can be in situ recorded, which allows it to image all aerosol particles and droplets with diameter larger than 6 μm contained in the sample volume in situ. Recently the beam diameter and optical path length of the inline system have been enlarged such that large cloud volumes (approximately 500 l) can be recorded on single holograms. During the holographic image reconstruction step in the laboratory,…

Nitric acid trihydrate nucleation and denitrification in the Arctic stratosphere

2014

Abstract. Nitric acid trihydrate (NAT) particles in the polar stratosphere have been shown to be responsible for vertical redistribution of reactive nitrogen (NOy). Recent observations by Cloud–Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) aboard the CALIPSO satellite have been explained in terms of heterogeneous nucleation of NAT on foreign nuclei, revealing this to be an important formation pathway for the NAT particles. In state of the art global- or regional-scale models, heterogeneous NAT nucleation is currently simulated in a very coarse manner using a constant, saturation-independent nucleation rate. Here we present first simulations for the Arctic winter 2009/2010 applying a n…

A New Method for Determining the Ångström Turbidity Coefficient from Broadband Filter Measurements

2000

Abstract In this work, a new method for determining Angstrom turbidity coefficients is presented. This method is based on broadband filter irradiance measurements. By combining measurements obtained with different filters it is possible to obtain a single value of the turbidity coefficient representative of the whole measurement range of the pyrheliometer. The results provided by this new method are compared with the original Angstrom method and turbidity coefficient values derived by spectroradiometric measurements. The results reproduce the actual values, as measured by a spectroradiometer, better than the previous best correlation did, thus demonstrating the advantage of analyzing the op…

2020

Abstract. An ice cloud chamber was developed at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz for generating several thousand data points for mass and sedimentation velocity measurements of ice crystals with sizes less than 150 µm. Ice nucleation was initiated from a cloud of supercooled droplets by local cooling using a liquid nitrogen cold finger. Three-dimensional tracks of ice crystals falling through the slightly supersaturated environment were obtained from the reconstruction of sequential holographic images, automated detection of the crystals in the hologram reconstructions, and particle tracking. Through collection of the crystals and investigation under a microscope before and after …

The optical constants of atmospheric aerosol particles in the 7.5–12 ?m spectral region

2011

Thin films of atmospheric aerosol particles which have been collected by an automatic jet impactor are used to obtain the real and imaginary part of the mean complex refractive index of aerosol particles of various types in the 7.5–12 ?m spectral region. A dispersion analysis of the measured ir-spectra of absorption of the particle films is performed. By applying the Lorentz theory of continuous dielectrics to the particle films a mathematical relation between the optical constants of the particle films and those of the aerosol particles themselves is obtained. The resulting complex refractive indices are applied to Mie computations to indicate the importance of scattering and absorbing aer…

Depolarization�ratio profiling at several wavelengths in pure Saharan dust during SAMUM 2006

2009

Vertical profiles of the linear particle depolarization ratio of pure dust clouds were measured during the Saharan Mineral Dust Experiment (SAMUM) at Ouarzazate, Morocco (30.9°N, –6.9°E), close to source regions in May–June 2006, with four lidar systems at four wavelengths (355, 532, 710 and 1064 nm). The intercomparison of the lidar systems is accompanied by a discussion of the different calibration methods, including a new, advanced method, and a detailed error analysis. Over the whole SAMUM periode pure dust layers show a mean linear particle depolarization ratio at 532 nm of 0.31, in the range between 0.27 and 0.35, with a mean Ångström exponent (AE, 440–870 nm) of 0.18 (range 0.04–0.34…

Approximation for the absorption coefficient of airborne atmospheric aerosol particles in terms of measurable bulk properties

1977

The absorption coefficient of airborne atmospheric aerosol particles can be approximated by where λ is the wavelength of radiation, n — ik is the mean complex refractive index, ρ the mean bulk density, and M / V k the mass of the particles per unit volume of air. This approximation gives good results at relative humidities between 0 and 0.95 for the wavelengths of radiation between 0.55 μm and 2.0 μm and between 9.25 μm and 12.0 μm. Basing on this approximation it is possible to determine the single scattering albedo of airborne atmospheric aerosol particles with known measuring techniques. DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-3490.1977.tb00711.x