EarthCARE Aerosol products intercomparison with CARO Polly Lidar in Limassol, Cyprus
Date Issued
March 17, 2025
Abstract
The Cyprus Atmospheric Remote Sensing Observatory (CARO) of ERATOSTHENES CoE actively participates in the calibration/validation (CAL/VAL) activities of the EarthCARE mission as part of the CORAL project (EVID39). The station’s contribution is very important due to two different reasons. First, Cyprus unique geographical location and excellent weather conditions offers a unique opportunity to study the vertical distribution of several types of the atmospheric constituents. Marine aerosols, dust particles from the Sahara Desert and Middle Eastern deserts, smoke particles from biomass burning in neighboring areas and from US-Canadian wildfires, as well as anthropogenic particles from urban and industrial regions in Central and Eastern Europe, are characteristic examples of aerosols observed in the atmosphere above Cyprus. Especially, Limassol as a coastline region play a crucial role in satellite Cal/Val activities due to its unique environmental characteristics and diverse surface properties. The area provide a natural transition between land and ocean, enabling simultaneous validation of both terrestrial and marine satellite observations. Second, the CARO is a multi-instrument National Facility infrastructure specializing in investigating aerosols and cloud interactions. The major instruments operated at the CARO station include an improved Dual Field of view multiwavelength polarization Raman lidar (Dual-FOV PollyXT), a 35-GHz cloud radar (MIRA-35), a microwave radiometer (HATPRO), a wind lidar (Streamline-XR), a ceilometer (OTT/LUFFT CHM15k), and an optical precipitation disdrometer (OTT Parsivel).
Funding
This research contributes to the Cyprus Observations for EarthCARE validation project (CORAL, EVID39) and supported by the ‘EXCELSIOR’: ERATOSTHENES: EΧcellence Research Centre for Earth Surveillance and Space-Based Monitoring of the Environment H2020 Widespread Teaming project (www.excelsior2020.eu). The ‘EXCELSIOR’ project has received funding from he European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 857510, from the Government of the Republic of Cyprus through the Directorate General for the European Programmes, Coordination and Development and the Cyprus University of Technology. This study was supported by the ATARRI Horizon Europe Widespread Twinning Project. ATARRI receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Twinning Call (HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ACCESS-02) under the grant agreement No 101160258.
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Name
2025_2ECW_REM_abstract.pdf
Size
314.88 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
b1b14b0f84b17ce429edc2d5230a51b4