Lidar observations of Asian dust over Hefei, China, in spring 2000

A Mie lidar was used to make observations of Asian dust over Hefei (31.90°N, 117.16°E) in spring 2000. This paper presents main features of vertical distribution and temporal variation of Asian dust extinction coefficient at 532‐nm wavelength. It was found that the Asian dust events contributed significantly to very large aerosol extinction coefficients in the boundary layer or middle troposphere. Extinction coefficient value as large as 0.7 km−1 at 3 km above ground level (AGL) has been observed. The Asian dust extinction coefficient profiles showed very big changes from early morning to evening and also appeared substantial amount of temporal variation during the nighttime. For the severe Asian dust days the depth of boundary layer rose up to around 4 km AGL, but only 1∼2 km AGL for normal days. The seasonal average aerosol extinction coefficient profiles also showed that larger aerosol extinction coefficients from 1‐ to 10‐km altitude range were observed in the springtime rather than in any other season. Meanwhile, solar extinction and radiation measurements indicated that the Asian dust particles were composed of larger size particles and they produced significantly perturbation in solar radiation on the Earth surface.