Aerosol properties over Southeastern China from multi-wavelength Raman and depolarization lidar measurements

Abstract

A dataset of particle optical properties of highly polluted urban aerosol over the Pearl River Delta, Guangzhou, China is presented. The data were derived from multi-wavelengths Raman and depolarization lidar PollyXT and AERONET sun photometer measurements. The measurement campaign was conducted from Nov 2011 to June 2012. High aerosol optical depth was observed in the polluted atmosphere over this megacity, with a mean value of 0.54 ± 0.33 and a peak value of even 1.9. For the particle characterization the lidar ratio and the linear particle depolarization ratio, both at 532 nm, were used. The mean values of these properties are 48.0 sr ± 10.7 sr for the lidar ratio and 4%+-4% for the particle depolarization ratio, which means most depolarization measurements stayed below 10%. So far, most of these results indicate urban pollution particles mixed with particles arisen from biomass and industrial burning.