Implementation of an inversion algorithm in Python to determinate vertical concentration profiles of biomass burning, volcanic ash and patagonian dust

JUAN LUCAS BALI; EDUARDO QUEL; LIDIA ANA OTERO; MILAGROS ESTEFANÍA HERRERA; PABLO ROBERTO RISTORI

Hefei

Workshop; 1st International Workshop on "Advancement of polarimetric ovservacionts: calibration and improved aerosol retrievals"; 2017

LiRIC (Lidar/Radiometer Inversion Code) is an algorithm to retrieve vertical profiles of aerosol fine and coarsemode concentration combining lidar and sunphotometer measurements. Concentration profiles obtained fromthis algorithm is separated in fine and coarse modes.In this work we present an algorithm developed in Python that follows many of LiRIC guidelines but it islimited to process three elastic channels: 355 nm, 532 nm and 1064 nm. This algorithm is able to perform all therequired tasks to obtain aerosol concentration in a single step and almost automatically when the requiredinformation is available.In a first step, we developed three simulation algorithms: the first for the atmosphere, the second for the lidarand the third for the sunphotometer to test our code. The first one provides vertical profiles of molecules andconcentration for the fine and coarse modes. The second and third simulation codes provide lidar profiles andsunphotometer post-processed parameters respectively. We close the loop using our code to convert thesynthetic input to concentration profiles and then we compare it with the input concentration profiles.In a second step, we analyze three case studies corresponding to typical atmospheric conditions in Argentina:biomass burning, volcanic ash (due to the presence of the Andes Volcanic Belt) and patagonian dust. The resultsare presented in concentration profiles time series are represented in color coded (concentration) time-heightsgraphs (Figure 1).