SOLAR campaign: stratospheric ozone lidar of Argentina

International audienceAs part of environmental studies of the southern atmosphere, the CEILAP Lidar Division in collaboration with the Service d'Aeronomie has developed a mobile differential absorption lidar capable of making precise and accurate measurements of the stratospheric ozone. The XeCl excimer laser emission at 308 nm is used as absorbed line in the DIAL technique and an Nd-YAG laser 355 nm third harmonic is employed as a reference wavelength. Six detected channels are used for stratospheric ozone retrieval, four of them in the high and low energy of the elastically backscattered signal of the emitted wavelengths and two corresponding to the first Stokes nitrogen Raman of the emitted wavelengths. Tropospheric Water Vapor profiles using Raman channels and Aerosol Backscatter profiles are also obtained. In this paper we present a detailed description of the instrument, a discussion of data analysis and the results of the first lidar-satellite inter-comparison of stratospheric ozone profiles measured with this instrument. We also present a description of the SOLAR campaign that will be held in the 2005 southern winter-spring period in Rio Gallegos (51° 55'S, 69° 14'W) with the objective of studying the ozone layer when the polar vortex crosses over the continental part of Argentina. This campaign will be supported by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency)