Estimates of remote sensing retrieval errors by the GRASP algorithm: application to ground-based observations, concept and validation

Understanding the uncertainties in the retrieval of aerosol and surface properties is very important for an adequate characterization of the processes that occur in the atmosphere. However, the reliable characterization of the error budget of the retrieval products is a very challenging aspect that currently remains not fully resolved in most remote sensing approaches. The level of uncertainties for the majority of the remote sensing products relies mostly on post-processing validations and intercomparisons with other data, while the dynamic errors are rarely provided. Therefore, implementations of fundamental approaches for generating dynamic retrieval errors and the evaluation of their practical efficiency remains of high importance. This study describes and analyses the dynamic estimates of uncertainties in aerosol-retrieved properties by the GRASP (Generalized Retrieval of Atmosphere and Surface Properties) algorithm. The GRASP inversion algorithm, described by Dubovik et al. (2011, 2014, 2021), is designed based on the concept of statistical optimization and provides dynamic error estimates for all retrieved aerosol and surface properties. The approach takes into account the effect of both random and systematic uncertainties propagations. The algorithm provides error estimates both for directly retrieved parameters included in the retrieval state vector and for the characteristics derived from these parameters. For example, in the case of the aerosol properties, GRASP directly retrieves the size distribution and the refractive index that are used afterwards to provide phase function, scattering, extinction, single scattering albedo, etc. Moreover, the GRASP algorithm provides full covariance matrices, i.e. not only variances of the retrieval errors but also correlations coefficients of these errors. The analysis of the correlation matrix structure can be very useful for identifying less than obvious retrieval tendencies. This appears to be a useful approach for optimizing observation schemes and retrieval set-ups. In this study, we analyse the efficiency of the GRASP error estimation approach for applications to ground-based observations by a sun/sky photometer and lidar. Specifically, diverse aspects of the error generations and their evaluations are discussed and illustrated. The studies rely on a series of comprehensive sensitivity tests when simulated sun/sky photometer measurements and lidar data are perturbed by random and systematic errors and inverted. Then, the results of the retrievals and their error estimations are analysed and evaluated. The tests are conducted for different observations of diverse aerosol types, including biomass burning, urban, dust and their mixtures. The study considers observations of AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) sun/sky photometer measurements at 440, 675, 870 and 1020 nm and multiwavelength elastic lidar measurements at 355, 532 and 1064 nm. The sun/sky photometer data are inverted alone or together with lidar data. The analysis shows overall successful retrievals and error estimations for different aerosol characteristics, including aerosol size distribution, complex refractive index, single scattering albedo, lidar ratios, aerosol vertical profiles, etc. Also, the main observed tendencies in the error dynamic agree with known retrieval experience. For example, the main accuracy limitations for retrievals of all aerosol types relate to the situations with low optical depth. Also, in situations with multicomponent aerosol mixtures, the reliable characterization of each component is possible only in limited situations, for example, from radiometric data obtained for low solar zenith angle observations or from a combination of radiometric and lidar data. At the same time, the total optical properties of aerosol mixtures are always retrieved satisfactorily. In addition, the study includes an analysis of the detailed structure of the correlation matrices for the retrieval errors in mono- and multicomponent aerosols. The conducted analysis of error correlation appears to be a useful approach for optimizing observation schemes and retrieval set-ups. The application of the approach to real data is provided.</p

Different strategies to retrieve aerosol properties at night-time with the GRASP algorithm

This study evaluates the potential of the GRASP algorithm (Generalized Retrieval of Aerosol and Surface Properties) to retrieve continuous day-to-night aerosol properties, both column-integrated and vertically resolved. The study is focused on the evaluation of GRASP retrievals during an intense Saharan dust event that occurred during the Sierra Nevada Lidar aerOsol Profiling Experiment I (SLOPE I) field campaign. For daytime aerosol retrievals, we combined the measurements of the ground-based lidar from EARLINET (European Aerosol Research Lidar Network) station and sun–sky photometer from AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network), both instruments co-located in Granada (Spain). However, for night-time retrievals three different combinations of active and passive remote-sensing measurements are proposed. The first scheme (N0) uses lidar night-time measurements in combination with the interpolation of sun–sky daytime measurements. The other two schemes combine lidar night-time measurements with nighttime aerosol optical depth obtained by lunar photometry either using intensive properties of the aerosol retrieved during sun–sky daytime measurements (N1) or using the Moon aureole radiance obtained by sky camera images (N2).This research has been supported by the European Union through the H2020 programme (ACTRIS-2, grant no. 654109) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (projects CMT2015-66742-R, CGL2016-81092- R, CGL2017-85344-R, RTI2018-097864-B-I00 and CGL2017- 90884-REDT)

Overview of the SLOPE I and II campaigns: aerosol properties retrieved with lidar and sun–sky photometer measurements

Jose Antonio Benavent-Oltra is funded by the University of Granada through "Plan Propio. Programa 7, Convocatoria 2019". Roberto Roman is funded by MINECO under the postdoctoral programme Juan de la Cierva-Incorporacion (IJCI2016-30007). Juan Andres Casquero-Vera is funded by MINECO under the predoctoral programme FPI (BES-2017-080015). Maria J. Granados-Munoz received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 796539. Oleg Dubovik was supported by the Labex CaPPA project, which is funded by the French National Research Agency under contract "ANR-11-LABX0005-01". This work was also supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (projects CMT2015-66742-R, CGL2016-81092-R, CGL2017-85344-R, RTI2018-097864-B-I00 and CGL2017-90884-REDT), by the Andalusia Regional Government through project P18-RT-3820 and the Unity of Excellence "Maria de Maeztu" (project MDM-2016-0600) financed by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI). The authors thankfully ac-knowledge the FEDER programme for the instrumentation used in this work, the University of Granada, which supported this study through the Excellence Units Program, and the Sierra Nevada National Park. We also thank Dr. Grisa Monick who provided the Aethalometer AVIO AE-33 installed on the aircraft. Thanks to AERONET and ACTRIS/AERONET Europe for the scientific and technical support. Finally, the authors would like to acknowledge the use of the GRASP inversion algorithm software (http://www.grasp-open.com, last access: 1 April 2020), in this work.The Sierra Nevada Lidar aerOsol Profiling Experiment I and II (SLOPE I and II) campaigns were intended to determine the vertical structure of aerosols by remote sensing instruments and test the various retrieval schemes for obtaining aerosol microphysical and optical properties with in situ measurements. The SLOPE I and II campaigns were developed during the summers of 2016 and 2017, respectively, combining active and passive remote sensing with in situ measurements at stations belonging to the AGORA observatory (Andalusian Global ObseRvatory of the Atmosphere) in the Granada area (Spain). In this work, we use the in situ measurements of these campaigns to evaluate aerosol properties retrieved by the GRASP code (Generalized Retrieval of Atmosphere and Surface Properties) combining lidar and sun-sky photometer measurements. We show an overview of aerosol properties retrieved by GRASP during the SLOPE I and II campaigns. In addition, we evaluate the GRASP retrievals of total aerosol volume concentration (discerning between fine and coarse modes), extinction and scattering coefficients, and for the first time we present an evaluation of the absorption coefficient. The statistical analysis of aerosol optical and microphysical properties, both column-integrated and vertically resolved, from May to July 2016 and 2017 shows a large variability in aerosol load and types. The results show a strong predominance of desert dust particles due to North African intrusions. The vertically resolved analysis denotes a decay of the atmospheric aerosols with an altitude up to 5 km a.s.l. Finally, desert dust and biomass burning events were chosen to show the high potential of GRASP to retrieve vertical profiles of aerosol properties (e.g. absorption coefficient and single scattering albedo) for different aerosol types. The aerosol properties retrieved by GRASP show good agreement with simultaneous in situ measurements (nephelometer, aethalometer, scanning mobility particle sizer, and aerodynamic particle sizer) performed at the Sierra Nevada Station (SNS) in Granada. In general, GRASP overestimates the in situ data at the SNS with a mean difference lower than 6 mu m(3) cm(-3) for volume concentration, and 11 and 2 Mm(-1)for the scattering and absorption coefficients. On the other hand, the comparison of GRASP with airborne measurements also shows an overestimation with mean absolute differences of 14 +/- 10 and 1.2 +/- 1.2 Mm(-1) for the scattering and absorption coefficients, showing a better agreement for the absorption (scattering) coefficient with higher (lower) aerosol optical depth. The potential of GRASP shown in this study will contribute to enhancing the representativeness of the aerosol vertical distribution and provide information for satellite and global model evaluation.University of GranadaMINECO under the postdoctoral programme Juan de la Cierva-Incorporacion IJCI2016-30007MINECO under the predoctoral programme FPI BES-2017-080015European Commission 796539French National Research Agency (ANR) ANR-11-LABX0005-01Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness CMT2015-66742-R CGL2016-81092-R CGL2017-85344-R RTI2018-097864-B-I00 CGL2017-90884-REDTAndalusia Regional Government P18-RT-3820Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) MDM-2016-0600Excellence Units ProgramSierra Nevada National Par

Dynamics of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer over two middle-latitude rural sites with Doppler lidar

The Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) over two middle-latitude rural sites was characterized in terms of mean horizontal wind and turbulence sources using a standard classification methodology based on Doppler lidar. The first location was an irrigated olive orchard in ubeda (Southern Spain), representing one of the most important crops in the Mediterranean basin and a typical site with Mediterranean climate. The second location was PolWET peatland site in Rzecin (Northwestern Poland), representing one of the largest natural terrestrial carbon storages that have a strong interaction with the climate system. The results showed typical situations for non cloud-topped ABL cases, where ABL is fully developed during daytime due to convection, with high turbulent activity and strong positive skewness indicating frequent and powerful updrafts. The cloud-topped cases showed the strong influence that clouds can have on ABL development, preventing it to reach the same maximum height and introducing top-down movements as an important contribution to mixing. The statistical analysis of turbulent sources allowed for finding a common diurnal cycle for convective mixing at both sites, but nocturnal wind shear driven turbulence with marked differences in its vertical distribution. This analysis demonstrates the Doppler lidar measurements and the classification algorithm strong potential to characterize the dynamics of ABL in its full extent and with high temporal resolution. Moreover, some recommendations for future improvement of the classification algorithm were provided on the basis of the experience gained.Peer reviewe

Tropospheric and stratospheric smoke over Europe as observed within EARLINET/ACTRIS in summer 2017

For several weeks in summer 2017, strong smoke layers were observed over Europe at numerous EARLINET stations. EARLINET is the European research lidar network and part of ACTRIS and comprises more than 30 ground-based lidars. The smoke layers were observed in the troposphere as well as in the stratosphere up to 25 km from Northern Scandinavia over whole western and central Europe to the Mediterranean regions. Backward trajectory analysis among other tools revealed that these smoke layers originated from strong wild fires in western Canada in combination with pyrocumulus convection. An extraordinary fire event in the mid of August caused intense smoke layers that were observed across Europe for several weeks starting on 18 August 2017. Maximum aerosol optical depths up to 1.0 at 532 nm were observed at Leipzig, Germany, on 22 August 2017 during the peak of this event. The stratospheric smoke layers reached extinction coefficient values of more than 600 Mm−1 at 532 nm, a factor of 10 higher than observed for volcanic ash after the Pinatubo eruption in the 1990s. First analyses of the intensive optical properties revealed low particle depolarization values at 532 nm for the tropospheric smoke (spherical particles) and rather high values (up to 20%) in the stratosphere. However, a strong wavelength dependence of the depolarization ratio was measured for the stratospheric smoke. This indicates irregularly shaped stratospheric smoke particles in the size range of the accumulation mode. This unique depolarization feature makes it possible to distinguish clearly smoke aerosol from cirrus clouds or other aerosol types by polarization lidar measurements. Particle extinction-to-backscatter ratios were rather low in the order of 40 to 50 sr at 355 nm, while values between 70-90 sr were measured at higher wavelengths. In the western and central Mediterranean, stratospheric smoke layers were most prominent in the end of August at heights between 16 and 20 km. In contrast, stratospheric smoke started to occur in the eastern Mediterranean (Cyprus and Israel) in the beginning of September between 18 and 23 km. Stratospheric smoke was still visible in the beginning of October at certain locations (e.g. Evora, Portugal), while tropospheric smoke was mainly observed until the end of August within Europe. An overview of the smoke layers measured at several EARLINET sites will be given. The temporal development of these layers as well as their geometrical and optical properties will be presented

Constraining lidar stand-alone retrievals with lunar photometry measurements

This study combines atmospheric optical information measured with lidar and nocturnal photometers in order to find configurations that allow for the retrieval of particle microphysical properties without “3+2” lidar setups. It has been carried out using data measured at the EARLINET Granada station during the experimental campaign SLOPE in the framework of ACTRIS-2 project

Constraining lidar stand-alone retrievals with lunar photometry measurements

This study combines atmospheric optical information measured with lidar and nocturnal photometers in order to find configurations that allow for the retrieval of particle microphysical properties without “3+2” lidar setups. It has been carried out using data measured at the EARLINET Granada station during the experimental campaign SLOPE in the framework of ACTRIS-2 project

Lidar stand-alone retrieval of atmospheric aerosol microphysical properties during SLOPE

Two cases from SLOPE campaign at Granada are analyzed in terms of particle microphysical properties using novel software developed at Potsdam University. Multiwavelength Raman lidar measurements of particle extinction and backscatter coefficients as well as linear particle depolarization ratios are used as input for the software. The result of the retrieval is a 2-dimensional particle volume distribution as a function of radius and aspect ratio, from which the particle microphysical properties are obtained

Adiciones y correcciones a la orquidoflora valenciana, V [Additions and corrections about valencian Orchidaceae]

RESUMEN: Se aportan datos sobre algunos táxones raros en la Comunidad Valenciana; a destacar la presencia de Orchis papilionacea subsp. grandiflora en Villena y Orchis collina en Santa Pola y Orihuela. También aportamos el comportamiento heterotrófico de Cephalanthera longifolia como novedad para España.ABSTRACT: Additions and corrections about valencian Orchidaceae. It is shown some data about rare orchid taxa at the Valencian Community, specially about Orchis papilionacea subsp. grandiflora in Villena and Orchis collina new in Santa Pola and Orihuela. We also provide heterotrophic behavior of Cephalanthera longifolia new for Spain