Abstract

A method is introduced to derive integral properties of the aerosol size distribution, e.g., aerosol mass, from tropospheric multiwavelength Raman lidar aerosol extinction and backscatter data, using an adapted form of the principal component analysis (PCA) technique. Since the refractive index of general tropospheric aerosols is variable and aerosol types can vary within one profile, an inversion technique applied in the troposphere should account for varying aerosol refractive indices. Using PCA, if a sufficiently complete set of appropriate refractive index dependent kernels is used, no a priori information about the aerosol type is necessary for the inversion of integral properties. In principle, the refractive index itself can be retrieved, but this quantity is more sensitive to measurement errors than the various integral properties of the aerosol size distribution. Here, the PCA technique adapted for use in the troposphere is introduced, the refractive index information content of the kernel sets is investigated, and error analyses are presented. The technique is then applied to actual tropospheric Raman lidar measurements.

© 2013 Optical Society of America

Principal component analysis applied to multiwavelength lidar aerosol backscatter and extinction measurements

David P. Donovan and Allan I. Carswell
Appl. Opt. 36(36) 9406-9424 (1997)

Vertical profiles of pure dust and mixed smoke–dust plumes inferred from inversion of multiwavelength Raman/polarization lidar data and comparison to AERONET retrievals and in situ observations

Detlef Müller, Igor Veselovskii, Alexei Kolgotin, Matthias Tesche, Albert Ansmann, and Oleg Dubovik
Appl. Opt. 52(14) 3178-3202 (2013)

Arrange and average algorithm for the retrieval of aerosol parameters from multiwavelength high-spectral-resolution lidar/Raman lidar data

Eduard Chemyakin, Detlef Müller, Sharon Burton, Alexei Kolgotin, Chris Hostetler, and Richard Ferrare
Appl. Opt. 53(31) 7252-7266 (2014)

Inversion with regularization for the retrieval of tropospheric aerosol parameters from multiwavelength lidar sounding

Igor Veselovskii, Alexei Kolgotin, Vadim Griaznov, Detlef Müller, Ulla Wandinger, and David N. Whiteman
Appl. Opt. 41(18) 3685-3699 (2002)

Inversion of multiwavelength Raman lidar data for retrieval of bimodal aerosol size distribution

Igor Veselovskii, Alexei Kolgotin, Vadim Griaznov, Detlef Müller, Kathleen Franke, and David N. Whiteman
Appl. Opt. 43(5) 1180-1195 (2004)