Comparison of Aerosol Optical and Microphysical Retrievals From HSRL-2 and in-Situ Measurements During DISCOVER-AQ 2013 (California and Texas)

DISCOVER-AQ was a 4-year NASA project aimed to improve the interpretation of total column satellite observations to help diagnose near-surface conditions relating to air quality. During DISCOVER-AQ HSRL-2 was flown onboard the NASA Langley B200 King Air. A suite of in-situ instruments was flown onboard NASA Wallops P-3B aircraft which spiraled up and down over a number of ground stations. The two aircraft flew coordinated flight tracks, both flying over several designated ground stations with close time coincidence, allowing for colocation of measurements from the in situ instruments suite and the HSRL-2. HSRL-2 is the first multiwavelength airborne lidar system that provides profiles of 3β (backscatter)+2α(extinction),allowing the retrieval of microphysical parameters like number, surface-area, and volume concentrations, and effective radius.