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Monitoring of aerosols and their temporal evolution is very important for climate and air quality studies. In this study, we present a climatology of aerosol optical and microphysical properties over a continental southeastern European area based on 9 years of observations from a Cimel sun-photometer operating at Magurele (Romania) in the framework of AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET). The site is characterized by high intra-annual and inter-annual variability of the total aerosol optical depth (AOD), which has two peaks, during March and August. For half year, from May to November, Magurele is affected by the transport of aerosols from the nearby city of Bucharest, since the dominant winds are from this direction. Thus, the predominant is the fine mode of aerosols. The high inter-annual and intra-annual variability of Angstrom exponent (440–870 nm) indicates the presence of aerosols of different sizes. Negative statistically significant trends at all AOD wavelengths, the order of 20–40% per decade, have been calculated for the 9-year period of study (2007–2016). These trends are mostly attributed to the reduction of the fine mode particles, showing that the implementation of the EU regulations for the decrease of particulate matter emissions in Bucharest has been beneficial.

This study documents a complex fire event that occurred on October 2016, in Middle East belligerent area. Two fire outbreaks were detected by different spacecraft monitoring instruments on board of TERRA, CALIPSO and AURA Earth Observation missions. Link with local weather conditions was examined using ERA Interim Reanalysis and CAMS datasets. The detection of the event by multiple sensors enabled a detailed characterization of fires and the comparison with different observational data.

Vertically resolved profiles of optical properties of aerosols were measured using a multi-wavelength lidar system-RALI, set up at the scientific research center in Magurele, Bucharest area (44.35 N latitude, 26.03 E longitude) during 2008. The use of multiple laser wavelengths has enabled us to observe significant variations in backscatter profiles depending on the particle origins. An air mass backward trajectory analysis, using Hysplit-4, was carried out to track the aerosol plumes. Aerosols can serve as valuable tracers of air motion in the planetary boundary layer (PBL). The height of layers in the lower troposphere from lidar signal was calculated using the gradient method- minima of the first derivative. The Richardson number method was used to estimate PBL height from the radio-soundings. We have used pressure, temperature and dew point profiles as well as the wind direction profiles from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) data base. The results were consistent with the ones obtained from LIDAR.

A lidar measurements campaign took in Magurele Platform, southwestern part of Bucharest, during on June 25th, 26th and 28th of 2007 and was intended for aerosol loading characteristics over the urban area. An event of long-range Saharan dust transport to Eastern Europe (Romania) observed during this time is presented in here. We have used an elastic backscattering lidar, based on an Nd:YAG laser, at 1064nm sounding wavelength. It can detect in real time aerosols density profiles up to 10 Km high with a spatial resolution of 12 m. Origin of lidar sampled air masses arriving at various heights over Bucharest have been determined by the analytical back-trajectories from NOAA HYSPLIT model. Saharan dust layers reached the southern part of Romania predominantly by cyclonic circulation due to the strong through observed at all the levels from a cyclonic system located in northwestern part of Africa. Analysis of cloud cover and dust load was estimated by the Dust Regional Atmospheric Modeling (Dream model). The dust event presented highlights how the synergy of Lidar data together with 3-D back trajectories analysis and model calculations can improve our ability to determine accurately the source of high aerosol loading.

LIDAR systems have demonstrated their ability to map aerosol variations throughout the atmospheric column and therefore they have has become a central technology in current strategies for tropospheric aerosol research. Its use is complicated, however, by the fact that the lidar signal contains a convolution of two basic optical properties of the aerosol particles: the backscatter coefficient and the extinction coefficient. A quantitative retrieval of either property requires knowledge of their relationship along the laser path which is referred as lidar ratio. If the lidar ratio can not be measured by high spectral resolution lidar, or Raman lidar, then either an assumed value of LR a must be used in the lidar retrieval, leading to very large uncertainties in light extinction, or models can be used for determination of LR a profile. Our research refers to the development of an iterative hybrid regularization technique for elastic backscatter lidar data processing and retrieval of the aerosols optical parameters using the atmospheric model, Mie model and Fernald-Klett, but also Ackermann algorithm for lidar ratio calculation based on relative humidity profile. This study focuses on a numerical investigation about the lidar ratio of tropospheric aerosols characterizing Romanian atmosphere. The model can be also used for other type of atmosphere in order to improve the derivation of aerosols optical parameters from elastic backscatter lidar data when no other information than meteorological data are available.