Observations of multiwavelength Mie–Raman lidar taken during the SHADOW
field campaign are used to analyze a smoke–dust episode over West Africa on
24–27 December 2015. For the case considered, the dust layer extended from
the ground up to approximately 2000 m while the elevated smoke layer
occurred in the 2500–4000 m range. The profiles of lidar measured
backscattering, extinction coefficients, and depolarization ratios are
compared with the vertical distribution of aerosol parameters provided by the
Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2
(MERRA-2). The MERRA-2 model simulated the correct location of the
near-surface dust and elevated smoke layers. The values of modeled and
observed aerosol extinction coefficients at both 355 and 532 nm are
also rather close. In particular, for the episode reported, the mean value of
difference between the measured and modeled extinction coefficients at
355 nm is 0.01 km−1 with SD of 0.042 km−1. The
model predicts significant concentration of dust particles inside the
elevated smoke layer, which is supported by an increased depolarization ratio
of 15 % observed in the center of this layer. The modeled at
355 nm the lidar ratio of 65 sr in the near-surface dust
layer is close to the observed value (70 ± 10) sr. At
532 nm, however, the simulated lidar ratio (about 40 sr) is
lower than measurements (55 ± 8 sr). The results presented
demonstrate that the lidar and model data are complimentary and the synergy
of observations and models is a key to improve the aerosols characterization
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