Can Ultra-violet Mie Lidar Be an Effective Instrument During High Pollution Episode?

Vertical profiles of particulates were measured by a 355 nm Mie scattering lidar during a dust-storm event. A high energy pulse laser was employed as the light source to detect the extinction coefficient in the altitude up to 6 km in the day and 9 km at night. The extinction profiles showed layers of high aerosol concentrations in good agreement with ground-based pollution measurements, which indicated that such ultra-violet lidar is a very useful remote sensing instrument for monitoring extinction profiles during extreme high aerosol loading and low visibility atmospheric conditions when low energy lidar systems cannot obtain effective results.