Lidar Studies of Tropospheric Aerosols and Clouds

An improved description of aerosol and cloud processes is a prerequisite for successful prediction of future climate change. The climate on Earth is controlled by the radiation budget, i.e. the relation between the radiation going into and out from the atmosphere. Aerosols are said to have two main effects on the climate. The direct effect refers to cooling and warming by reflection of incoming solar radiation and absorption of outgoing thermal radiation, respectively. The indirect effect concerns the ability of aerosols to influence cloud formation and to change the optical and physical properties of clouds. Clouds normally occupy at least 50% of the sky on a global scale. The presence of clouds greatly increases the portion of the solar radiation reflected back to space, but on the other hand clouds may absorb outgoing thermal radiation from Earth and in the same way as a greenhouse gas partly counteract the cooling effect. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified clouds as the key uncertainty in predicting climate change: “The single largest uncertainty in determining the climate sensitivity to either natural or anthropogenic changes is clouds and their effects on radiation and their role in the hydrological cycle”. The overall aim of the present thesis is to contribute to an increased understanding of climate effects as well as air quality issues related to aerosol and clouds. The radiative properties of clouds are determined by the microphysics, i.e. refractive index, shape, and size distribution. In this thesis the construction and development of a bistatic lidar set-up for polarisation measurements throughout the troposphere is described and the results obtained with this system are presented. From the measurements of optically thin or mildly opaque high latitude clouds substantial depolarisation was observed. Ray tracing calculations for hexagonal ice columns were able to produce all the experimental values if a suitable degree of surface roughness was introduced. The results show that it is important to account for non-spherical shapes for the assessment of the radiative impact of Arctic ice clouds, and that the bistatic lidar technique may provide a useful complementary technique to be used together with existing lidar setups. Lidar measurements were also conducted with the aim to study particulate air pollution in Göteborg. The limited insolation in wintertime sometimes resulted in near neutral boundary layer conditions and inefficient ventilation during the day. Considerable variation in the rate of rising polluted air subsequent to inversion layer break-up was observed, ranging from 200 to 800 m/h. Recently formed particles were observed around midday subsequent to surface layer ventilation. The boundary layer dynamics are concluded to have a strong impact on the properties of the urban aerosol and to a large extent determine the severity of the wintertime urban air pollution episodes to human health

Anthropogenic Heat Flux Estimation from Space: Results of the first phase of the URBANFLUXES Project

H2020-Space project URBANFLUXES (URBan ANthrpogenic heat FLUX from Earth observation Satellites) investigates the potential of Copernicus Sentinels to retrieve anthropogenic heat flux, as a key component of the Urban Energy Budget (UEB). URBANFLUXES advances the current knowledge of the impacts of UEB fluxes on urban heat island and consequently on energy consumption in cities. This will lead to the development of tools and strategies to mitigate these effects, improving thermal comfort and energy efficiency. In URBANFLUXES, the anthropogenic heat flux is estimated as a residual of UEB. Therefore, the rest UEB components, namely, the net all-wave radiation, the net change in heat storage and the turbulent sensible and latent heat fluxes are independently estimated from Earth Observation (EO), whereas the advection term is included in the error of the anthropogenic heat flux estimation from the UEB closure. The project exploits Sentinels observations, which provide improved data quality, coverage and revisit times and increase the value of EO data for scientific work and future emerging applications. These observations can reveal novel scientific insights for the detection and monitoring of the spatial distribution of the urban energy budget fluxes in cities, thereby generating new EO opportunities. URBANFLUXES thus exploits the European capacity for space-borne observations to enable the development of operational services in the field of urban environmental monitoring and energy efficiency in cities. H2020-Space project URBANFLUXES (URBan ANthrpogenic heat FLUX from Earth observation Satellites)investigates the potential of Copernicus Sentinels to retrieve anthropogenic heat flux, as a key component of the UrbanEnergy Budget (UEB). URBANFLUXES advances the current knowledge of the impacts of UEB fluxes on urban heatisland and consequently on energy consumption in cities. This will lead to the development of tools and strategies tomitigate these effects, improving thermal comfort and energy efficiency. In URBANFLUXES, the anthropogenic heatflux is estimated as a residual of UEB. Therefore, the rest UEB components, namely, the net all-wave radiation, the netchange in heat storage and the turbulent sensible and latent heat fluxes are independently estimated from EarthObservation (EO), whereas the advection term is included in the error of the anthropogenic heat flux estimation from theUEB closure. The project exploits Sentinels observations, which provide improved data quality, coverage and revisittimes and increase the value of EO data for scientific work and future emerging applications. These observations canreveal novel scientific insights for the detection and monitoring of the spatial distribution of the urban energy budgetfluxes in cities, thereby generating new EO opportunities. URBANFLUXES thus exploits the European capacity forspace-borne observations to enable the development of operational services in the field of urban environmentalmonitoring and energy efficiency in cities

Urban Multi-scale Environmental Predictor (UMEP) : An integrated tool for city-based climate services

UMEP (Urban Multi-scale Environmental Predictor), a city-based climate service tool, combines models and tools essential for climate simulations. Applications are presented to illustrate UMEP's potential in the identification of heat waves and cold waves; the impact of green infrastructure on runoff; the effects of buildings on human thermal stress; solar energy production; and the impact of human activities on heat emissions. UMEP has broad utility for applications related to outdoor thermal comfort, wind, urban energy consumption and climate change mitigation. It includes tools to enable users to input atmospheric and surface data from multiple sources, to characterise the urban environment, to prepare meteorological data for use in cities, to undertake simulations and consider scenarios, and to compare and visualise different combinations of climate indicators. An open-source tool, UMEP is designed to be easily updated as new data and tools are developed, and to be accessible to researchers, decision-makers and practitioners. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

Urban Multi-scale Environmental Predictor - an extensive tool for climate services in urban areas

The city based climate service tool UMEP (Urban Multi-scale Environmental Predictor) is a coupled modelling system that combines models essential for urban climate processes and is developed as an extensive QGIS plugin. An application is presented to illustrate its potential, specifically of the identification of heat waves and cold waves in cities. The tool has broad utility for applications related to outdoor thermal comfort, urban energy consumption, climate change mitigation etc. It includes tools to: enable users to input atmospheric and surface data from multiple sources, prepare meteorological data for use in urban areas, undertake simulations and consider scenarios, and compare and visualize different combinations of climate indicators

Anthropogenic heat flux estimation from space: first results

While Earth Observation (EO) has made significant advances in the study of urban areas, there are several unanswered science and policy questions to which it could contribute. To this aim the recently launched Horizon 2020 project URBANFLUXES (URBan ANthrpogenic heat FLUX from Earth observation Satellites) investigates the potential of EO to retrieve anthropogenic heat flux, as a key component in the urban energy budget. The anthropogenic heat flux is the heat flux resulting from vehicular emissions, space heating and cooling of buildings, industrial processing and the metabolic heat release by people. Optical, thermal and SAR data from existing satellite sensors are used to improve the accuracy of the radiation balance spatial distribution calculation, using also in-situ reflectance measurements of urban materials are for calibration. EO-based methods are developed for estimating turbulent sensible and latent heat fluxes, as well as urban heat storage flux and anthropogenic heat flux spatial patterns at city scale and local scale by employing an energy budget closure approach. Independent methods and models are engaged to evaluate the derived products and statistical analyses provide uncertainty measures as well. Ultimate goal of the URBANFLUXES is to develop a highly automated method for estimating urban energy budget components to use with Copernicus Sentinel data, enabling its integration into applications and operational services. Thus, URBANFLUXES prepares the ground for further innovative exploitation of European space data in scientific activities (i.e. Earth system modelling and climate change studies in cities) and future and emerging applications (i.e. sustainable urban planning) by exploiting the improved data quality, coverage and revisit times of the Copernicus data. The URBANFLUXES products will therefore have the potential to support both sustainable planning strategies to improve the quality of life in cities, as well as Earth system models to provide more robust climate simulations. More information on the project can be found at http://urbanfluxes.eu/

Characterization of the cloud microphysical and optical properties and aerosol-cloud interaction in the Arctic from in situ ground-based measurements during the CLIMSLIP-NyA campaign, Svalbard

International audienceThis study will focus on cloud microphysical and optical characterization of three different types of episodes encountered during the ground based CLIMSLIP-NyA campaign performed in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard: the Mixed Phase Cloud (MPC), snow precipitation and Blowing Snow (BS) events. These in situ cloud measurements will be combined with aerosol measurements and air mass backtrajectory simulations to qualify and parameterize the arctic aerosol cloud interaction and to assess the influence of anthropogenic pollution transported into the Arctic. The results show a cloud bimodal distribution with the droplet mode at 10 µm and the crystal mode centered at 250 µm, for the MPC cases. The precipitation cases presents a crystal distribution centered around 350 µm with mostly of dendritic shape. The BS cases show a higher concentration but smaller crystals, centered between 150 and 200 µm, with mainly irregular crystals. A "polluted" case, where aerosol properties are influenced by anthropogenic emission from Europe and East Asia, was compared to a "clean" case with local aerosol sources. These anthropogenic emissions seem to cause higher Black Carbon, aerosol and droplet concentrations, a more pronounced accumulation mode, smaller droplet sizes and a higher activation fraction Fa. Moreover, the activation diameter decreases as the droplet diameter increases and Fa increases showing that smaller particles are activated and droplets grow when the aerosol number decreases. This is in agreement with the first (Twomey) and second (Albrecht) aerosol indirect effect. The quantification of the variations of droplet concentration and size leads to IE (Indirect Effect) and NE (Nucleation Efficiency) coefficients values around 0.2 and 0.43, respectively. These values are close to those found by other studies in the arctic region which confirms these parameterizations of arctic aerosol-cloud interaction in climate models

Ground based in situ measurements of arctic cloud microphysical and optical properties at Mount Zeppelin (Ny-Alesund Svalbard)

International audienceThe high sensitivity of the polar regions to climate perturbation, due to complex feedback mechanisms existing in this region, was shown by many studies (Solomon et al., 2007; Verlinde et al., 2007; IPCC, 2007). In particular, climate simulations suggest that cloud feedback plays an important role in the arctic warming (Vavrus 2004; Hassol, 2005). Moreover, the high seasonal variability of arctic aerosol properties (Engwall et al., 2008; Tunveld et al., 2013) is expected to significantly impact the cloud properties during the winter-summer transition. Field measurements are needed for improved understanding and representation of cloud-aerosol interactions in climate models. Within the CLIMSLIP project (CLimate IMpacts of Short-LIved Pollutants and methane in the arctic), a two months (March-April 2012) ground-based cloud measurement campaign was performed at Mt Zeppelin station, Ny-Alesund, Svalbard. The experimental setup comprised a wide variety of instruments. A CPI (Cloud Particle Imager) was used for the microphysical and morphological characterization of ice particles. Measurements of sized-resolved liquid cloud parameters were performed by the FSSP-100 (Forward Scattering Spectrometer Probe). The Nevzorov Probe measured the bulk properties (LWC and IWC) of clouds. The Polar Nephelometer (PN) was used to assess the single scattering properties of an ensemble of cloud particles. This cloud instrumenta-tion combined with the aerosol properties (size distribution and total concentration) continuously measured at the station allowed us to study the variability of the microphysical and optical properties of low level Mixed Phase Clouds (MPC) as well as the aerosol-cloud interaction in the Arctic. Typical properties of MPC, snow precipitation and blowing snow will be presented. First results suggest that liquid water is ubiquitous in arctic low level clouds. Precipitations are characterized by large (typically 1 mm sized) stellar and pristine shape particles whereas blowing snow is typically composed of 250 µm irregular ice crystals. This dataset will be used to test physically based representations of the relationships between particle size, shape and optical properties and to investigate dominant microphysical processes occurring in MPC using detailed microphysical modeling. Moreover, carbon monoxide measurements allow us to compare polluted with clean cases. The cloud-aerosol interactions processes which take place during the transport of polluted air masses from mid-latitude to the Arctic is thus assessed