Mini N2-Raman Lidar onboard ultra-light aircraft for aerosol measurements: Demonstration and extrapolation

Abstract

Few airborne aerosol research experiments have deployed N2-Raman Lidar despite its capability to retrieve aerosol optical properties without ambiguity. Here, we show the high scientific potential of this instrument when used with specific flight plans. Our demonstration is based on (i) a field-experiment conducted in June 2015 in southern France, involving a N2-Raman Lidar embedded on an ultra-light aircraft (ULA); and (ii) an appropriate algorithmic approach using two-level flight levels, aiming to solve the notorious instability of the airborne Lidar inversion for the retrieval of aerosol optical properties. The Lidar measurements include the determination of the aerosol extinction coefficient along ~500 m horizontal line of sight, and this value is used as a reference to validate the proposed algorithm. The Lidar-derived vertical profiles obtained during the flights are used as an input in a Monte Carlo simulation in order to compute the error budget in terms of biases and standard deviations on the retrieved aerosol extinction coefficient profile, as well as the subsequent optical thickness. The influence of the Lidar ratio (i.e., between aerosol extinction and backscatter) on the error budget is further discussed. Finally, from this end-to-end modeling, an optimal N2-Raman Lidar is proposed for airborne experiments, adapted to both small and large carriers.