Aerosol plume transport and transformation in high spectral resolution lidar measurements and WRF-Flexpart simulations during the MILAGRO Field Campaign

This paper uses a combination of measurements and numerical simulations to identify different plumes affecting the basin and to characterize transformation inside the plumes. The High Spectral Resolution Lidar on board the NASA LaRC B-200 King Air aircraft measured extinction coefficients and extinction to backscatter ratio at 532 nm, and backscatter coefficients and depolarization ratios at 532 and 1064 nm.

These can be used to identify aerosol types. The measurement curtains are compared with particle trajectory simulations using WRF-Flexpart for different source groups. The good correspondence between measurements and simulations suggests that the aerosol transport is sufficiently well characterized by the models to estimate aerosol types and ages.