Engineering topics

Veselovskii, Igor

Publications and source records attributed to Veselovskii, Igor.

12 records

DOE OSTI2022

Australian wildfire smoke in the stratosphere: the decay phase in 2020/2021 and impact on ozone depletion

Abstract. Record-breaking wildfires raged in southeastern Australia in late December 2019 and early January 2020. Rather strong pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) convection developed over the fire areas and lofted enormous amounts of biomass burning smoke into the tropopause region and caused the strongest wildfire-related stratospheric aerosol perturbation ever observed around the globe. We discuss the geometrical, optical, and microphysical properties of the stratospheric smoke layers and the decay of this major stratospheric perturbation. A multiwavelength polarization Raman lidar at Punta Arenas (53.2∘ S, 70.9∘ W), southern Chile, and an elastic backscatter Raman lidar at Río Grande (53.8∘ S, 67.7∘ W) in southern Argentina, were operated to monitor the major record-breaking event until the end of 2021. These lidar measurements can be regarded as representative for mid to high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere. A unique dynamical feature, an anticyclonic, smoke-filled vortex with 1000 km horizontal width and 5 km vertical extent, which ascended by about 500 m d−1, was observed over the full last week of January 2020. The key results of the long-term study are as follows. The smoke layers extended, on average, from 9 to 24 km in height. The smoke partly ascended to more than 30 km height as a result of self-lofting processes. Clear signs of a smoke impact on the record-breaking ozone hole over Antarctica in September–November 2020 were found. A slow decay of the stratospheric perturbation detected by means of the 532 nm aerosol optical thickness (AOT) yielded an e-folding decay time of 19–20 months. The maximum smoke AOT was around 1.0 over Punta Arenas in January 2020 and thus 2 to 3 orders of magnitude above the stratospheric aerosol background of 0.005. After 2 months with strongly varying smoke conditions, the 532 nm AOT decreased to 0.03-0.06 from March–December 2020 and to 0.015–0.03 throughout 2021. The particle extinction coefficients at 532 nm were in the range of 10–75 Mm−1 in January 2020 and, later on, mostly between 1 and 5 Mm−1. Combined lidar–photometer retrievals revealed typical smoke extinction-to-backscatter ratios of 69 ± 19 sr (at 355 nm), 91 ± 17 sr (at 532 nm), and 120 ± 22 sr (at 1064 nm). An ozone reduction of 20 %–25 % in the 15–22 km height range was observed over Antarctica and New Zealand ozonesonde stations in the smoke-polluted air, with particle surface area concentrations of 1–5 µm2 cm−3.

Ohneiser, Kevin↗

DOE OSTI2021

Tropospheric and stratospheric wildfire smoke profiling with lidar: mass, surface area, CCN, and INP retrieval

We present retrievals of tropospheric and stratospheric height profiles of particle mass, volume, surface area, and number concentrations in the case of wildfire smoke layers as well as estimates of smoke-related cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and ice-nucleating particle (INP) concentrations from backscatter lidar measurements on the ground and in space. Conversion factors used to convert the optical measurements into microphysical properties play a central role in the data analysis, in addition to estimates of the smoke extinction-to-backscatter ratios required to obtain smoke extinction coefficients. The set of needed conversion parameters for wildfire smoke is derived from AERONET observations of major smoke events, e.g., in western Canada in August 2017, California in September 2020, and southeastern Australia in January–February 2020 as well as from AERONET long-term observations of smoke in the Amazon region, southern Africa, and Southeast Asia. The new smoke analysis scheme is applied to CALIPSO observations of tropospheric smoke plumes over the United States in September 2020 and to ground-based lidar observation in Punta Arenas, in southern Chile, in aged Australian smoke layers in the stratosphere in January 2020. These case studies show the potential of spaceborne and ground-based lidars to document large-scale and long-lasting wildfire smoke events in detail and thus to provide valuable information for climate, cloud, and air chemistry modeling efforts performed to investigate the role of wildfire smoke in the atmospheric system.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS2017

Retrievals of Aerosol Microphysics from Simulations of Spaceborne Multiwavelength Lidar Measurements

In support of the Aerosol, Clouds, Ecosystems mission, simulations of a spaceborne multiwavelength lidar are performed based on global model simulations of the atmosphere along a satellite orbit track. The yield for aerosol microphysical inversions is quantified and comparisons are made between the aerosol microphysics inherent in the global model and those inverted from both the model's optical data and the simulated three backscatter and two extinction lidar measurements, which are based on the model's optical data. We find that yield can be significantly increased if inversions based on a reduced optical dataset of three backscatter and one extinction are acceptable. In general, retrieval performance is better for cases where the aerosol fine mode dominates although a lack of sensitivity to particles with sizes less than 0.1 microns is found. Lack of sensitivity to coarse mode cases is also found, in agreement with earlier studies. Surface area is generally the most robustly retrieved quantity. The work here points toward the need for ancillary data to aid in the constraints of the lidar inversions and also for joint inversions involving lidar and polarimeter measurements.

aerosols↗

NASA NTRS2013

Effects of Systematic and Random Errors on the Retrieval of Particle Microphysical Properties from Multiwavelength Lidar Measurements Using Inversion with Regularization

In this work we study the effects of systematic and random errors on the inversion of multiwavelength (MW) lidar data using the well-known regularization technique to obtain vertically resolved aerosol microphysical properties. The software implementation used here was developed at the Physics Instrumentation Center (PIC) in Troitsk (Russia) in conjunction with the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. Its applicability to Raman lidar systems based on backscattering measurements at three wavelengths (355, 532 and 1064 nm) and extinction measurements at two wavelengths (355 and 532 nm) has been demonstrated widely. The systematic error sensitivity is quantified by first determining the retrieved parameters for a given set of optical input data consistent with three different sets of aerosol physical parameters. Then each optical input is perturbed by varying amounts and the inversion is repeated. Using bimodal aerosol size distributions, we find a generally linear dependence of the retrieved errors in the microphysical properties on the induced systematic errors in the optical data. For the retrievals of effective radius, number/surface/volume concentrations and fine-mode radius and volume, we find that these results are not significantly affected by the range of the constraints used in inversions. But significant sensitivity was found to the allowed range of the imaginary part of the particle refractive index. Our results also indicate that there exists an additive property for the deviations induced by the biases present in the individual optical data. This property permits the results here to be used to predict deviations in retrieved parameters when multiple input optical data are biased simultaneously as well as to study the influence of random errors on the retrievals. The above results are applied to questions regarding lidar design, in particular for the spaceborne multiwavelength lidar under consideration for the upcoming ACE mission.

vertical profiles↗

NASA NTRS2013

Assessing the Temperature Dependence of Narrow-Band Raman Water Vapor Lidar Measurements: A Practical Approach

Narrow-band detection of the Raman water vapor spectrum using the lidar technique introduces a concern over the temperature dependence of the Raman spectrum. Various groups have addressed this issue either by trying to minimize the temperature dependence to the point where it can be ignored or by correcting for whatever degree of temperature dependence exists. The traditional technique for performing either of these entails accurately measuring both the laser output wavelength and the water vapor spectral passband with combined uncertainty of approximately 0.01 nm. However, uncertainty in interference filter center wavelengths and laser output wavelengths can be this large or larger. These combined uncertainties translate into uncertainties in the magnitude of the temperature dependence of the Raman lidar water vapor measurement of 3% or more. We present here an alternate approach for accurately determining the temperature dependence of the Raman lidar water vapor measurement. This alternate approach entails acquiring sequential atmospheric profiles using the lidar while scanning the channel passband across portions of the Raman water vapor Q-branch. This scanning is accomplished either by tilt-tuning an interference filter or by scanning the output of a spectrometer. Through this process a peak in the transmitted intensity can be discerned in a manner that defines the spectral location of the channel passband with respect to the laser output wavelength to much higher accuracy than that achieved with standard laboratory techniques. Given the peak of the water vapor signal intensity curve, determined using the techniques described here, and an approximate knowledge of atmospheric temperature, the temperature dependence of a given Raman lidar profile can be determined with accuracy of 0.5% or better. A Mathematica notebook that demonstrates the calculations used here is available from the lead author.

Raman lidar↗

NASA NTRS2013

Liquid Water Cloud Measurements Using the Raman Lidar Technique: Current Understanding and Future Research Needs

This paper describes recent work in the Raman lidar liquid water cloud measurement technique. The range-resolved spectral measurements at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center indicate that the Raman backscattering spectra measured in and below low clouds agree well with theoretical spectra for vapor and liquid water. The calibration coefficients of the liquid water measurement for the Raman lidar at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Southern Great Plains site of the U.S. Department of Energy were determined by comparison with the liquid water path (LWP) obtained with Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) and the liquid water content (LWC) obtained with the millimeter wavelength cloud radar and water vapor radiometer (MMCR-WVR) together. These comparisons were used to estimate the Raman liquid water cross-sectional value. The results indicate a bias consistent with an effective liquid water Raman cross-sectional value that is 28%-46% lower than published, which may be explained by the fact that the difference in the detectors' sensitivity has not been accounted for. The LWP of a thin altostratus cloud showed good qualitative agreement between lidar retrievals and AERI. However, the overall ensemble of comparisons of LWP showed considerable scatter, possibly because of the different fields of view of the instruments, the 350-m distance between the instruments, and the horizontal inhomogeneity of the clouds. The LWC profiles for a thick stratus cloud showed agreement between lidar retrievals andMMCR-WVR between the cloud base and 150m above that where the optical depth was less than 3. Areas requiring further research in this technique are discussed.

vapor and liquid water↗

NASA NTRS2012

Linear Estimation of Particle Bulk Parameters from Multi-Wavelength Lidar Measurements

An algorithm for linear estimation of aerosol bulk properties such as particle volume, effective radius and complex refractive index from multiwavelength lidar measurements is presented. The approach uses the fact that the total aerosol concentration can well be approximated as a linear combination of aerosol characteristics measured by multiwavelength lidar. Therefore, the aerosol concentration can be estimated from lidar measurements without the need to derive the size distribution, which entails more sophisticated procedures. The definition of the coefficients required for the linear estimates is based on an expansion of the particle size distribution in terms of the measurement kernels. Once the coefficients are established, the approach permits fast retrieval of aerosol bulk properties when compared with the full regularization technique. In addition, the straightforward estimation of bulk properties stabilizes the inversion making it more resistant to noise in the optical data. Numerical tests demonstrate that for data sets containing three aerosol backscattering and two extinction coefficients (so called 3 + 2 ) the uncertainties in the retrieval of particle volume and surface area are below 45% when input data random uncertainties are below 20 %. Moreover, using linear estimates allows reliable retrievals even when the number of input data is reduced. To evaluate the approach, the results obtained using this technique are compared with those based on the previously developed full inversion scheme that relies on the regularization procedure. Both techniques were applied to the data measured by multiwavelength lidar at NASA/GSFC. The results obtained with both methods using the same observations are in good agreement. At the same time, the high speed of the retrieval using linear estimates makes the method preferable for generating aerosol information from extended lidar observations. To demonstrate the efficiency of the method, an extended time series of observations acquired in Turkey in May 2010 was processed using the linear estimates technique permitting, for what we believe to be the first time, temporal-height distributions of particle parameters.

linear estimation↗

NASA NTRS2010

Airborne and Ground-Based Measurements Using a High-Performance Raman Lidar

A high-performance Raman lidar operating in the UV portion of the spectrum has been used to acquire, for the first time using a single lidar, simultaneous airborne profiles of the water vapor mixing ratio, aerosol backscatter, aerosol extinction, aerosol depolarization and research mode measurements of cloud liquid water, cloud droplet radius, and number density. The Raman Airborne Spectroscopic Lidar (RASL) system was installed in a Beechcraft King Air B200 aircraft and was flown over the mid-Atlantic United States during July August 2007 at altitudes ranging between 5 and 8 km. During these flights, despite suboptimal laser performance and subaperture use of the telescope, all RASL measurement expectations were met, except that of aerosol extinction. Following the Water Vapor Validation Experiment Satellite/Sondes (WAVES_2007) field campaign in the summer of 2007, RASL was installed in a mobile trailer for groundbased use during the Measurements of Humidity and Validation Experiment (MOHAVE-II) field campaign held during October 2007 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory s Table Mountain Facility in southern California. This ground-based configuration of the lidar hardware is called Atmospheric Lidar for Validation, Interagency Collaboration and Education (ALVICE). During theMOHAVE-II field campaign, during which only nighttime measurements were made, ALVICE demonstrated significant sensitivity to lower-stratospheric water vapor. Numerical simulation and comparisons with a cryogenic frost-point hygrometer are used to demonstrate that a system with the performance characteristics of RASL ALVICE should indeed be able to quantify water vapor well into the lower stratosphere with extended averaging from an elevated location like Table Mountain. The same design considerations that optimize Raman lidar for airborne use on a small research aircraft are, therefore, shown to yield significant dividends in the quantification of lower-stratospheric water vapor. The MOHAVE-II measurements, along with numerical simulation, were used to determine that the likely reason for the suboptimal airborne aerosol extinction performance during theWAVES_2007 campaign was amisaligned interference filter. With full laser power and a properly tuned interference filter,RASL is shown to be capable ofmeasuring themain water vapor and aerosol parameters with temporal resolutions of between 2 and 45 s and spatial resolutions ranging from 30 to 330 m from a flight altitude of 8 km with precision of generally less than 10%, providing performance that is competitive with some airborne Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) water vapor and High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) aerosol instruments. The use of diode-pumped laser technology would improve the performance of an airborne Raman lidar and permit additional instrumentation to be carried on board a small research aircraft. The combined airborne and ground-based measurements presented here demonstrate a level of versatility in Raman lidar that may be impossible to duplicate with any other single lidar technique.

Whiteman, David N.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Advances in Raman Lidar Measurements of Water Vapor, Cirrus Clouds and Carbon Dioxide

Narrow-band interference filters with improved transmission in the ultraviolet have been developed under NASA-funded research and used in the Raman Airborne Spectroscopic Lidar (RASL) in ground- based, upward-looking tests. RASL is an airborne Raman Lidar system designed to measure water vapor mixing ratio, and aerosol backscatter/extinction/depolarization. It also possesses the capability to make experimental measurements of cloud liquid water and carbon dioxide. It is being prepared for first flight tests during the summer of 2006. With the newly developed filters installed in RASL, measurements were made of atmospheric water vapor, cirrus cloud optical properties and carbon dioxide that improve upon any previously demonstrated using Raman lidar. Daytime boundary layer profiling of water vapor mixing ratio is performed with less than 5% random error using temporal and spatial resolution of 2-minutes and 60 - 210, respectively. Daytime cirrus cloud optical depth and extinction- to-backscatter ratio measurements are made using 1-minute average. Sufficient signal strength is demonstrated to permit the simultaneous profiling of carbon dioxide and water vapor mixing ratio into the free troposphere during the nighttime. Downward-looking from an airborne RASL should possess the same measurement statistics with approximately a factor of 5 - 10 decrease in averaging time. A description of the technology improvements are provided followed by examples of the improved Raman lidar measurements.

Whiteman, David N.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Improvements in Raman Lidar Measurements Using New Interference Filter Technology

Narrow-band interference filters with improved transmission in the ultra-violet have been developed under NASA-funded research and used in the Raman Airborne Spectroscopic Lidar (RASL) in ground-based, upward-looking tests. Measurements were made of atmospheric water vapor, cirrus cloud optical properties and carbon dioxide that improve upon any previously demonstrated using Raman lidar. Daytime boundary and mixed layer profiling of water vapor mixing ratio up to an altitude of approximately 4 h is performed with less than 5% random error using temporal and spatial resolution of 2-minutes and 60 - 210, respectively. Daytime cirrus cloud optical depth and extinction-to-backscatter ratio measurements are made using 1 -minute average. Sufficient signal strength is demonstrated to permit the simultaneous profiling of carbon dioxide and water vapor mixing ratio into the free troposphere during the nighttime. A description of the filter technology developments is provided followed by examples of the improved Raman lidar measurements.

Whiteman, David N.↗

NASA NTRS2004

A New Way to Measure Cirrus Ice Water Content by Using Ice Raman Scatter with Raman Lidar

High and cold cirrus clouds mainly contain irregular ice crystals, such as, columns, hexagonal plates, bullet rosettes, and dendrites, and have different impacts on the climate system than low-level clouds, such as stratus, stratocumulus, and cumulus. The radiative effects of cirrus clouds on the current and future climate depend strongly on cirrus cloud microphysical properties including ice water content (IWC) and ice crystal sizes, which are mostly an unknown aspect of cinus clouds. Because of the natural complexity of cirrus clouds and their high locations, it is a challenging task to get them accurately by both remote sensing and in situ sampling. This study presents a new method to remotely sense cirrus microphysical properties by using ice Raman scatter with a Raman lidar. The intensity of Raman scattering is fundamentally proportional to the number of molecules involved. Therefore, ice Raman scattering signal provides a more direct way to measure IWC than other remote sensing methods. Case studies show that this method has the potential to provide essential information of cirrus microphysical properties to study cloud physical processes in cirrus clouds.

Wang, Zhien↗

NASA NTRS2004

NASA/GSFC Scanning Raman Lidar Measurements of Water Vapor and Clouds During IHOP

The NASA/GSFC Scanning Raman Lidar (SRL) participated in the International H2O Project (IHOP) that occurred in May and June, 2002 in the midwestern part of the U.S. The SRL acquired measurements of water vapor, aerosols, cloud liquid and ice water, and temperature for more than 200 hours during IHOP. Here we report on the SRL water vapor and cirrus cloud measurements with particular emphasis being given to the measurements of June 19-20, 2002, which are motivating cirrus cloud model comparison studies.

Whiteman, David N.↗