Variability in lidar-derived particle properties over West Africa due to changes in absorption: towards an understanding

International audienceMeasurements performed in western Africa (Sene-gal) during the SHADOW field campaign are analyzed to show that spectral dependence of the imaginary part of the complex refractive index (CRI) of dust can be revealed by lidar-measured particle parameters. Observations in April 2015 provide good opportunity for such study, because , due to high optical depth of the dust, exceeding 0.5, the extinction coefficient could be derived from lidar measurements with high accuracy and the contribution of other aerosol types, such as biomass burning, was negligible. For instance, in the second half of April 2015, AERONET observations demonstrated a temporal decrease in the imaginary part of the CRI at 440 nm from approximately 0.0045 to 0.0025. This decrease is in line with a change in the relationship between the lidar ratios (the extinction-to-backscattering ratio) at 355 and 532 nm (S 355 and S 532). For instance in the first half of April, S 355 /S 532 is as high as 1.5 and the backscatter Ångström exponent, A β , is as low as −0.75, while after 15 April S 355 /S 532 = 1.0 and A β is close to zero. The aerosol depolarization ratio δ 532 for the whole of April exceeded 30 % in the height range considered, implying that no other aerosol, except dust, occurred. The performed mod-eling confirmed that the observed S 355 /S 532 and A β values match the spectrally dependent imaginary part of the refrac-tive index as can be expected for mineral dust containing iron oxides. The second phase of the SHADOW campaign was focused on evaluation of the lidar ratio of smoke and estimates of its dependence on relative humidity (RH). For five studied smoke episodes the lidar ratio increases from 44 ± 5 to 66 ± 7 sr at 532 nm and from 62 ± 6 to 80 ± 8 sr at 355 nm, when RH varied from 25 % to 85 %. Performed numerical simulations demonstrate that observed ratio S 355 /S 532 , exceeding 1.0 in the smoke plumes, can indicate an increase in the imaginary part of the smoke particles in the ultraviolet (UV) range