Characterization of forest fire smoke event near Washington, DC in Summer 2013 with multi-wavelength lidar (original) (raw)

The multi-wavelength lidar technique was applied to the study of a smoke event near Washington DC on 26–28 August 2013. Satellite observations combined with transport model predictions imply that the smoke plume originated mainly from Wyoming/Idaho forest fires and its transportation to Washington DC took approximately 5 days. The NASA/GSFC multi-wavelength Mie–Raman lidar was used to measure the smoke particle intensive parameters such as extinction and backscatter Ångström exponents together with lidar ratios at 355 and 532 nm wavelengths. For interpretation of the observed vertical profiles of the backscatter Ångström exponents γ_β at 355–532 nm and 532–1064 nm, numerical simulation was performed. The results indicate that for fine mode dominant aerosols, the Ångström exponents γ_β (355–532) and γ_β (532–1064) have essentially different dependence on the particle size and refractive...