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Aerosol backscatter measurements at 10.6 microns with airborne and ground-based CO2 Doppler lidars over the Colorado High Plains. II - Backscatter structureMeasurements of tropospheric aerosol volume backscatter coefficients at 10.6-microns wavelength were obtained with airborne continuous wave and ground-based pulsed CO2 Doppler lidars over the Colorado High Plains during a 20-day period in summer 1982. A persistent 'background' layer was found between 6- and 10-km altitude, with a generally uniform backscatter mixing ratio of about 10 to the -10th sq m/kg per sr. The upper boundary of this background layer varied with the tropopause height; the lower boundary varied with the strength and diurnal cycle of convective mixing in the planetary boundary layer (PBL). For quiescent meteorological conditions, the transition from the PBL to the background layer was usually very sharp, with backscatter decreases sometimes as large as 3 decades in about 70 m. Sharp gradients were also found at the boundaries of shallow (tens of meters) subvisible cirrus clouds. For less stable conditions, associated with vertical aerosol transport by deep cumuliform clouds, backscatter tended to decrease exponentially with altitude.
Document ID
19910047181
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Bowdle, David A.
(Alabama, University Huntsville, United States)
Rothermel, Jeffry
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
Vaughan, J. Michael
(Royal Signals and Radar Establishment Malvern, United Kingdom)
Post, Madison J.
(NOAA, Wave Propagation Laboratory, Boulder CO, United States)
Date Acquired
August 14, 2013
Publication Date
March 20, 1991
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Geophysical Research
Volume: 96
ISSN: 0148-0227
Subject Category
Geophysics
Accession Number
91A31804
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAS8-37585
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAS8-36474
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAS8-37135
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAS8-36279
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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