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We present the analysis of four years of measurements by a CL51 ceilometer in Burjassot (39.51 N, 0.42 W), a research station in the western Mediterranean coast. The 1-min resolution profiles of the CL51 are corrected, calibrated, grouped and cloud-screened to create a 1-h resolution database of aerosol backscatter profiles at 910 nm (βa) spanning from July 2013 to August 2017. A total of 21,247 βa profiles are obtained, covering 58% of the considered period. The analysis of the βa profiles as a function of the main aerosol in the atmosphere reveals that dust arrives at Burjassot mainly in the form of elevated layers, with a highest impact between 1 and 4 km. The βa profiles obtained throughout the year show a strong seasonal trend: in summer we obtain, on average, the highest βa coefficients distributed over a stratified profile; on the contrary, in winter the mean βa coefficients have the lowest value and decrease exponentially with height. Our observations indicate that these seasonal changes are related to seasonal changes in the distribution of dust and to the wind direction at surface level. Regarding this last point we observe that conditions favoring aerosol re-circulation and thermal internal boundary layer lead to the highest βa values and to the stratification of the aerosol profile. On the contrary, when these mechanisms are impeded we find lower βa values and no aerosol layering. Finally, we observed that the βa follows a daily cycle that varies depending on the season the wind regime.

The most destructive wildfire experienced in Spain since 2004 occurred close to Valencia in summer 2012. A total of 48.500ha were affected by two wildfires, which were mostly active during 29-30 June. The fresh smoke plume was detected at the Burjassot measurement station simultaneously to a severe dust episode. We propose an empirical method to evaluate the dust and smoke mixing and its impact on the microphysical and optical properties. For this, we combine direct-sun measurements with a Cimel CE-318 sun-photometer with an inversion methodology, and the Mie theory to derive the column-integrated size distribution, single scattering albedo (SSA) and asymmetry parameter (g). The mixing of dust and smoke greatly increased the aerosol load and modified the background aerosol properties. Mineral dust increased the aerosol optical depth (AOD) up to 1, while the smoke plume caused an extreme AOD peak of 8. The size distribution of the mixture was bimodal, with a fine and coarse modes dominated by the smoke particles and mineral dust, respectively. The SSA and g for the dust-smoke mixture show a marked sensitivity on the smoke mixing-ratio, mainly at longer wavelengths. Mineral dust and smoke share a similar SSA at 440nm (~0.90), but with opposite spectral dependency. A small dust contribution to the total AOD substantially affects the SSA of the mixture, and also SSA at 1020nm increases from 0.87 to 0.95. This leads to a different spectral behaviour of SSA that changes from positive (smoke plume) to negative (dust), depending on the dust and smoke mixing-ratio.

Saharan dust outbreaks are one of the major aerosol sources in Southern Europe. Dust affects the radiative balance of the Earth–atmosphere system and impacts health. The assessment of Saharan outbreaks requires information about the vertical distribution of dust in the atmosphere, usually obtained from lidar measurements, such as the ones performed by the spaceborne Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) sensor. In this paper, we have used CALIOP level-1 daytime data in combination with aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements from Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) ground-based photometers to obtain aerosol profiles during 23 dust outbreaks over Southern Europe. These profiles are used for two main purposes: analyzing the lidar ratio values and vertical distribution of dust and evaluating the performance of version 3 of CALIOP algorithms. The mean lidar ratio obtained from the synergic method ranged between 47.7 and 49.0 sr, depending on the criterion used to average CALIOP signal. The dust layers traveled at a wide range of altitudes, from surface level up to 7.6 km. We found that the AOD values retrieved from CALIOP level 2 (version 3) and AERONET were not correlated $({r} . In addition, we observed that the mean AOD obtained by satellite retrievals, between 0.16 and 0.18, was lower than the mean AERONET value, i.e., 0.33, by 50%. These differences in the AOD were found to be caused by two main reasons: misclassification of dense dust layers as clouds by CALIOP algorithms, mainly over 4 km, and limitations of CALIOP algorithms to detect weak aerosol layers, particularly between 1.5 and 2.5 km.

We present the first multiyear set of simultaneous measurements of the global ultraviolet-B radiation and its two components: direct and diffuse. The measurements have been taken with four YES-UVB-1 radiometers: two radiometers to measure the diffuse radiation, one provided with a shadow band and the other with a shadow disk on a Sun tracker; a radiometer to measure the global horizontal radiation; and a Sun-tracking radiometer to measure the direct radiation with an especially designed radiance collimator. The diffuse minute-values measured with both instruments agree within a coefficient correlation of 1.00. The diffuse component represents at least 50% of the global UVB (ultraviolet-B) radiation. The minute values of global UVB irradiance obtained by adding the direct and diffuse components concur with the measured global irradiance. Therefore, the measurement of the direct irradiance enables the estimation of the diffuse component, and gives an insight into the factors that affect its value, especially aerosols.

The solar background illumination has a strong effect on CALIOP (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) measurements, leading to a decrease in the signal-to-noise ratio of the lidar signal. Because of this, CALIOP level 2 data algorithms might be limited in the retrieval of the properties of the aerosols in the atmosphere. In this work, we present a methodology that combines CALIOP level 1 data with AERONET (Aerosol RObotic NETwork) measurements to retrieve aerosol extinction profiles and lidar ratios in daytime conditions. In this way, we fulfill a two-fold objective: first, we obtain more accurate daytime aerosol information; second, we supplement column integrated measurements from AERONET sun photometers with information about the vertical distribution of aerosols. The methodology has been applied to Burjassot (39.30° N, 0.25° W) and Barcelona (41.39° N, 2.11° E) AERONET stations in the Mediterranean coast of Spain in the period from June 2006 to September 2011. We have found good agreement for the extinction profiles in several study cases of ground lidar measurements in Barcelona, coincident with CALIOP overpasses. Finally, the methodology has proved to be useful for the study of special episodes such as Saharan dust outbreaks.

Under sunlight illumination, the shape of the atmospheric oxygen bands [O2-B (687 nm) and O2-A (760 nm)] of the vegetation radiance is modified by chlorophyll fluorescence as a result of the filling-in process. However, for far-range measurements, atmospheric effects also modify this shape. In this paper, measurements of the depth of O2-A and O2-B absorption bands have been performed at different altitudes, from 324 to 3123 m, over different targets, including bare soil and wheat fields. It is observed that bands depth increases significantly with altitude. In the O2-B band, the total magnitude of variation is on the same order of magnitude as the change induced by vegetation, while it is much greater in the O2-A band. Three main factors affect the measurements of band depth: 1) the transmittance of the air column between ground and sensor, 2) the path radiance, and 3) the additional contribution of the ground surface outside the field of view scattered by the atmosphere (adjacency effect). We used the MODerate spectral resolution atmospheric TRANsmittance algorithm (MODTRAN) 4 to compute separately these atmospheric and environmental terms, and we corrected airborne measurements to retrieve ground-level band depths. A study was conducted to assess the sensitivity of the absorption band depth to several atmospheric parameters. The magnitudes of these effects were compared to the band depth variation induced by fluorescence. We identified temperature, air pressure, and aerosols as the most critical parameters. After correction of airborne measurements from atmospheric effects, it is found that the variation of band depth with altitude is greatly reduced. The residual variation, particularly in the case of O2-B band over vegetation, is attributed to an inaccurate assessment of the environment contribution that is scattered by the atmosphere to the sensor. These results show that the MODTRAN 4 is able to simulate oxygen band depth variations at moderate spectral resolution (i.e., 0.5–1 nm) and can be used to compute atmospheric and environmental factors for corrections of airborne measurements of oxygen band profiles. We also showed that an accurate evaluation of the contribution of environment is needed to correct the band depth from atmospheric effects in the O2-B band.

The daily values of UVB irradiation (290–315 nm), IUVB, and the broadband total irradiation (300–2800 nm), IT, measured on a horizontal plane have been correlated for the period 2000–2008 at 16 measurement sites in Spain. The results have been compared with the daily experimental values registered at the same sites during the period 2009–2011. The coefficients of determination R2 obtained by applying a linear regression are higher than 0.88 for all sites and increase to 0.94 when using a quadratic regression. When all data are considered together, the values of R2 are 0.91 and 0.97 for the linear and quadratic regressions, respectively. Three different clearness indices, which are dimensionless parameters, have been also used in order to reduce the uncertainties of the estimations and to reduce the local nature of the coefficients: (1) the UVB clearness index, kTUVB = IUVB/I0UVB; (2) the modified UVB clearness index, k′TUVB and (3) the estimated UVB clearness index, k*TUVB. The results show a strong dependence on the solar zenith angle. The bi-dimensional regression of kTUVB as a function of the solar zenith angle and the clearness index, kT, substantially improves the correlation, with R2 values higher than 0.81 for all sites. Finally, a formula relating kTUVB and kT, valid for latitudes between 36°N and 44°N, has been obtained: kTUVB = 0.064 kT – 0.0011 θz – 1.24 E-05 ϕ + 7.6 E-05 λ + 0.063, where θz represents the solar zenith angle (in degrees), ϕ is the latitude (in degrees) of the site and λ is the distance to the sea (in km). We have compared the experimental values for the period 2009–2011 with those estimated using this expression. For this, the coefficient of determination (R2) is 0.87, with a MBD of –3.4%, a RMSE of 21% and a NRMSE of 8.7%.

The Physics Demo Project at the University of Valencia ( www.uv.es/fisicademos ) has developed a collection of physics demonstrations to be used during lectures. It consists of more than 130 experimental demos about different physics topics. More than 30 professors borrow them whenever they lecture on physics in any of our 40 courses in 17 different science or technical degrees, involving 246 ECTS and more than 3500 students. Each demo kit with a simple experimental set displays a particular physics phenomenon. An on-line user guide highlights the main physics principles involved, instructions on how to use it and advices of how to link it to the theoretical concepts or to technical applications. Demo lectures (and collections) are a usual and widespread practice in many countries but not in Spain. This unique initiative aims at the recovery of this practice by involving a growing collaborative team of users and with the aid of educational innovation projects. Here we explain the project content, organization and recent developments. Our experience, together with the positive students comments, allows us to draw the following conclusions: demos introduce the real sensible world in the lecture hall, providing the necessary link between concepts and everyday life, and becoming, again, something more than “chalk and talk”.

—A group of eight Spanish lidars was formed in order to extend the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network–Advanced Sustainable Observation System (EARLINET-ASOS)project. This study presents intercomparisons at the hardware and software levels. Results of the system intercomparisons are based on range-square-corrected signals in cases where the lidars viewed the same atmospheres. Comparisons were also made for aeros backscatter coefficients at 1064 nm (2 systems) and 532 nm (all systems), and for extinction coefficients at 532 nm (2 systems). In total, three field campaigns were carried out between 2006 and 2007. Comparisons were limited to the highest layer found before the free troposphere, i.e., either the atmospheric boundary layer or the aerosol layer just above it. Some groups did not pass the quality assurance criterion on the first attempt. Following modification and improvement to these systems, all systems met the quality criterion. The backscatter algorithm intercomparison consisted of processing lidar signal profiles simulated for two types of atmospheric conditions. Three stages with increasing knowledge of the input parameters were considered. The results showed that all algorithms work well when all inputs are known. They also showed the necessity to perform, when possible, additional measurements to attain better estimation of the lidar ratio, which is the most critical unknown in the elastic lidar inversion.

A measurement campaign to assess the feasibility of remote sensing of sunlight-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (ChlF) from a coniferous canopy was conducted in a boreal forest study site (Finland). A Passive Multi-wavelength Fluorescence Detector (PMFD) sensor, developed in the LURE laboratory, was used to obtain simultaneous measurements of ChlF in the oxygen absorption bands, at 687 and 760 nm, and a reflectance index, the PRI (Physiological Reflectance Index), for a month during spring recovery. When these data were compared with active fluorescence measurements performed on needles they revealed the same trend. During sunny days fluorescence and reflectance signals were found to be strongly influenced by shadows associated with the canopy structure. Moreover, chlorophyll fluorescence variations induced by rapid light changes (due to transient cloud shadows) were found to respond more quickly and with larger amplitude under summer conditions compared to those obtained under cold acclimation conditions. In addition, ChlF at 760 nm was observed to increase with the chlorophyll content. During this campaign, the CO2 assimilation was measured at the forest canopy level and was found remarkably well correlated with the PRI index.

In this paper we present the results obtained from ground-based measurements using a CIMEL sunphotometer during selected clear days corresponding to the winter and summer periods of 2002 in Valencia, an urban coastal Mediterranean site. From the direct solar extinction data the spectral aerosol optical depth (AOD) has been retrieved. This spectral AOD has been used to obtain the size distribution function from the King inversion algorithm. The results show the great dependence of the optical aerosol characteristics on the dominant winds in this area. This location is subject to winds which have either a land or Mediterranean origin which frequently mask the aerosols coming from the Atlantic or north Africa, respectively.

Under sun-light illumination, the shape of the atmospheric oxygen bands (O 2 -B, 687 nm and O 2 -A, 760 nm) of the vegetation radiance is modified by chlorophyll fluorescence. However for far-range measurements, atmospheric effects also modify this shape. In this study, measurements in O 2 -A and O 2 -B absorption bands have been performed at different altitudes up to 3123 m over bare soil and wheat fields. It is observed that bands depth increase significantly with altitude. In O 2 -B band, the total magnitude of variation is of the same order of magnitude as the change induced by vegetation fluorescence, while it is much greater in O 2 -A band. We used MODTRAN 4 to correct measurements from these atmospheric effects and to retrieve ground level band depths. It is found that the variation of corrected band depth with altitude is greatly reduced. These results show that MODTRAN 4 can be used to account for atmospheric effects. We also showed that an accurate evaluation of the contribution of environment is needed to correct band depth from atmospheric effects, especially in the O 2 -B band.

Atmospheric aerosols have an uncertain effect on climate and serious impacts on human health. The uncertainty in the aerosols' role on climate has several sources. First, aerosols have great spatial and temporal variability. The spatial variability arises from the fact that aerosols emitted in a certain place can travel thousands of kilometers, swept by the winds to modify the destination region's climate. The spatial variability also means that aerosols are inhomogeneously distributed in the vertical direction, which can lead to a differential effect on the energy balance depending on the aerosols' altitude. On the other hand, aerosols experience physical and chemical transformations in the time they spend in the atmosphere, commonly known as aging, which modifies its optical properties. These factors make necessary the use of two approaches for the study of the aerosol impact on climate: global aerosol models and satellite- and ground-based measurements. The disagreement between the estimates of the two approaches is the main cause of the climate uncertainty. One way to reduce climate uncertainty is to create new tools to simulate more realistic aerosol scenarios. We present a graphical user interface to obtain aerosol optical properties: extinction, scattering, and absorption coefficients; single-scattering albedo; asymmetry parameter; and aerosol optical depth. The tool can be used to obtain the optical properties of the external and internal mixture of several aerosol components. Interface outputs have successfully been compared to a black carbon plume and to aging mineral dust.

Los simuladores solares emiten una radiación espectral que reproduce con bastante fidelidad el espectro de la radiación solar. Se emplean en dermatología, fundamentalmente en la realización del fototest para la determinación de dosis eritemáticas (MED). Su espectro de emisión puede variar con el tiempo en función del envejecimiento de las fuentes o por desajustes mecánicos u ópticos del sistema, lo que hace obligada una calibración periódica de los mismos. Esta calibración se realiza por medio de espectrorradiómetros de precisión, lo que permite comparar la respuesta espectral en mediciones sucesivas que deberían realizarse en función del tiempo de uso, al menos cada 6 meses. En este trabajo hemos estudiado la respuesta espectral de un simulador Solar Light 12S empleado en el Servicio de Dermatología del Hospital General Universitario de Valencia, encontrándose en el mismo considerables variaciones con el tiempo debido fundamentalmente a desajustes de alineación óptica. Estos desajustes recomiendan sustituir las unidades de tiempo habitualmente aplicadas en los fototests por unidades de energía para la obtención de valores de referencia para los diferentes tipos de piel. Abstract Solar simulators emit a spectral radiation that reproduce very accurately the solar spectrum. They are employed in dermatology mainly to perform the phototests in order to determine eryhemal doses (MED). The emission spectrum of such simulators may change with time as a consequence of the ageing of the sources or owing to the system getting out of mechanical or optical alignment. So it is necessary a periodic calibration of the instrument. Such calibration must be performed by means of precision spectroradiometers allowing the comparison of the spectral response through successive measurements within six months intervals at most. In this work the spectral response of a Solar Light 12S simulator that is employed in the Dermatology Service of the General Hospital of Valencia has been studied. Important variations with time have been found, own mainly to variations in the optical alignment. The time units usually employed in the phototests should be replaced by energy units in order to get the reference values for the different skin types.

The authors present a preliminary study of some optical properties of atmospheric aerosols over the area of Valencia, Spain, a coastal Mediterranean city. Measurements of spectral direct irradiance in the 300-1100 nm range were taken simultaneously at three sites: rural-continental, rural-coastal, and urban-coastal, all located within a 50 km radius of the city of Valencia. The irradiance measurements were obtained using three Li-cor 1800 spectroradiometers provided with radiance limiting tubes with field of views (FOVs) of 4.7/spl deg/. The measurements were made under clear sky conditions during a field campaign carried out in the summer of 1998. In order to avoid the uncertainties associated with the determination of the water vapor content and the other atmospheric constituents, the analysis of the spectral aerosol optical thickness (AOT) values was limited to the 400-670 mm spectral band. From the values of the spectral AOT, both the Angstrom coefficients and the aerosol size distributions were obtained. The results show the great dependence of the optical aerosol characteristic on the direction of the prevailing winds (maritime or continental) in this area.

UVSPEC and SMARTS2 models have been used to estimate the UV spectral irradiance values in Valencia, Spain, and the results of these estimations have been compared with experimental measurements of direct irradiance at normal incidence obtained using an Optronic OL 754 in the 300-400 nm range. The relative RMSD and MBD parameters have been used to estimate the deviations of the modelled values with respect to the experimental values. The results indicate that the deviations are smaller when the SMARTS2 model is used with the appropriate aerosol coefficients.

In this work, a new method for determining Angstrom turbidity coefficients is presented. This method is based on broadband filter irradiance measurements. By combining measurements obtained with different filters it is possible to obtain a single value of the turbidity coefficient representative of the whole measurement range of the pyrheliometer. The results provided by this new method are compared with the original Angstrom method and turbidity coefficient values derived by spectroradiometric measurements. The results reproduce the actual values, as measured by a spectroradiometer, better than the previous best correlation did, thus demonstrating the advantage of analyzing the optical thickness from bands covering the whole spectral range.

The Angstrom turbidity coefficient, the Linke turbidity factor, and the Unsworth–Monteith coefficient have been determined and analysed based on measurements of normal direct irradiance and global horizontal irradiance taken in Valencia, Spain, between January 1990 and December 1996. The data, which were acquired automatically and continuously, have been filtered to select only those values corresponding to clear sky conditions. To determine the Angstrom turbidity coefficient the method proposed by Louche et al. has been used whilst the expression for δCDA proposed by Kasten was used to obtain the Linke turbidity coefficient. The Angstrom turbidity coefficient showed a minimum in winter with values between 0.06 and 0.12. It tended to increase in the spring and reach a maximum between 0.22 and 0.29 in summer before falling again in the autumn. The daily and annual evolution of all three coefficients were very similar with correlation coefficients between pairs of them close to 1.

The most intense wildfire experienced in Eastern Spain since 2004 happened in Valencia during summer 2012. Although the fire was mostly active during days 29–30 June, a longer temporal period (from 24 June to 4 July) was selected for this analysis. Column-integrated, vertical resolved and surface aerosol observations were performed continuously at the Burjassot station throughout the studied period. The aerosol optical depth at 500 nm shows values larger than 2 for the most intense part of the wildfire and an extremely high maximum of 8 was detected on 29 June. The simultaneous increase of the Ångström exponent was also observed, indicating the important contribution of small particles in the smoke plume. An extraordinary increase in the particle concentration near the ground was observed and hence the measured scattering coefficient was drastically enhanced. The scattering coefficient and the PM2.5 level maxima reached the unusually high values of 2100 Mm−1 and 160 μg m−3, respectively. These records represent an enhancement factor of 26 and 7 with respect to the climatological averages found in this station during June and July. The surface maxima were observed with 1-day lag from the maximum AOD, and this fact is linked with the mixing layer amplitude and the sedimentation of smoke particles. The aerosol microphysical parameters and optical properties were determined for the whole period by combination of an inversion procedure and the Mie Theory. The smoke particles enhanced drastically the volume concentration of the fine mode with a maximum of 0.4 μm3 μm−2, which is 10 times higher than the climatological summer background in this site. The simultaneous presence of dust and smoke particles at different altitudes was observed and hence the coarse mode was also significant during the most intense period of the wildfire episode. Therefore the aerosol single scattering albedo and the asymmetry parameter obtained during the smoke cases display high variability which is partially modulated by the volume of coarse particles. The smoke episode highly contributed to increase the load of particles remaining in the atmosphere after the event, especially in the fine mode, although similar aerosol microphysical and optical properties were observed before and after the event. In addition, the particle concentration observed at surface level due to the wildfire episode largely contributes to exceed the EU annual limits for the particulate matter in the studied region.

Daily average total ozone Microtops measurements obtained during several campaigns conducted from 2001 to 2011 at latitudes from 31 to 68N and in different seasons are compared with satellite observations. The Microtops ozone is derived using different wavelength combinations (Channel I, 305.5/312.5. nm; Channel II, 312.5/320. nm; and Channel III, 305.5/312.5/320. nm). Satellite data from TOMS, OMI, GOME, and GOME-2 are used in the comparison. The three Microtops channels show a high correlation with the satellite retrievals. Channel I shows the best results and produces a mean bias deviation (MBD) less than 2.14% with respect to TOMS, OMI and GOME. The MBD increases to 3% in the comparison against GOME-2, due to the small number of available data. In addition, the total ozone content provided by Channel I displays the more stable behavior during the ten-year period. The Channel III total ozone shows MBD values smaller than those observed for Channel I. However the Channels II and III present a larger variability and show a larger spread of the data. Consequently, Channel I appears as the best option for long term measurements with Microtops. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

A Microtops II "ozone monitor" with UV channels centered at 305.5, 312.5, and 320 nm has been used routinely in six experimental campaigns carried out in several geographic locations and seasons, covering latitudes from 35 to 68° N during the last ten years (2001–2011). The total ozone content is retrieved by Microtops II by using different combinations (Channel I, 305.5/312.5 nm; Channel II, 312.5/320 nm; and Channel III, 305.5/312.5/320 nm) of the signals at the three ultraviolet wavelengths. The long-term performance of the total ozone content determination has been studied taking into account the sensitivities to the calibration, airmass, temperature and aerosols. When a calibration was used and the airmass limit was fixed to 3, the root mean square deviations of the relative differences produced by Microtops II with respect to several Brewers are 0.9, 2, and 2% respectively for the Channel I, Channel II, and Channel III retrieval. The performance of the Microtops retrieval has been stable during the last ten years. Channel I represents the best option to determine the instantaneous total ozone content. Channels II and III values appear weakly sensitive to temperature, ozone content, and aerosols. Channel II is more stable than Channel I for airmasses larger than 2.6. The conclusions do not show any dependence on latitude and season. This study was possible thanks to a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Generalitat Valenciana in the case of J. L. G´omez Amo (in the framework of “Estancies postdoctorals en centres de Excellencia de la Comunitat Valenciana” programme) and a Juan de la Cierva research contract (JCI-2009-04455) in the case of V. Estell´es, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN). This work was also supported by the MICINN projects CGL2007-60648 and CGL2009-07790, and by the Valencian Autonomous Government through the Project PROMETEO/2010/064.

We present a comparison of aerosol properties derived from in situ and remote sensing instruments during DAMOCLES campaign, aimed at investigating the equivalence between the instrumentation and methodologies employed by several Spanish groups to study atmospheric aerosols at a regional background site. The complete set of instruments available during this closure experiment allowed collecting a valuable high-resolution aerosol measurement data set. The data set was augmented with airborne in situ measurements carried out in order to characterize aerosol particles during the midday of 29 June 2006. This work is focused on aerosol measurements using different techniques of high-quality instruments (ground-based remote sensing and aircraft in situ) and their comparisons to characterize the aerosol vertical profiles. Our results indicate that the variability between the detected aerosol layers was negligible in terms of aerosol optical properties and size distributions. Relative differences in aerosol extinction coefficient profiles were less than 20% at 355 and 532 nm and less than 30% at 1064 nm, in the region with high aerosol concentration. Absolute differences in aerosol optical depth (AOD) were below 0.01 at 532 and 1064 nm and less than 0.02 at 355 nm, less than the uncertainties assumed in the AOD obtained from elastic lidar. Columnar values of the lidar ratio revealed some discrepancies with respect to the in situ aircraft measurements, caused fundamentally by the lack of information in the lowest part of the boundary layer.

En la mayor parte de las ciencias, los ejercicios practicos son la mejor manera de adquirir y evaluar, tanto conocimientos cientificos como las habilidades y competencias necesarias para su aplicacion. Es un entrenamiento que, como en el mundo del deporte, resulta imprescindible y mejora el rendimiento. La resolucion de problemas exige una gran dedicacion del profesorado y, en este aspecto, la utilizacion de cuestionarios on-line puede ser de gran ayuda. Sin embargo, este tipo de cuestionarios tambien presentan una dificultad, que es el esfuerzo inicial necesario. Para reducir esta dificultad se planteo la elaboracion de una base de datos de cuestiones y un protocolo de exportacion.

International audience; A new model of chlorophyll a fluorescence emission by plant leaves, FluorMODleaf, is presented. It is an extension of PROSPECT, a widely used leaf optical properties model that regards the leaf as a pile of N absorbing and diffusing elementary plates. In FluorMODleaf, fluorescence emission of an infinitesimal layer of thickness dx is integrated over the entire elementary plate. The fluorescence source function is based on the excitation spectrum of diluted isolated thylakoids and on the emission spectra of isolated photosystems, PSI and PSII, which are the main pigment–protein complexes involved in the initial stages of photosynthesis. Scattering within the leaf is produced by multiple reflections within and between elementary plates. The input variables of FluorMODleaf are: the number of elementary plates N, also called leaf structure parameter, the total chlorophyll content Cab, the total carotenoid content Ccx, the equivalent water thickness Cw, and the dry matter content Cm (or leaf mass per area), as in the new PROSPECT-5, plus the σII/σI ratio referring to the relative absorption cross section of PSI and PSII, and the fluorescence quantum efficiency of PSI and PSII, τI and τII, that are introduced here as mean fluorescence lifetimes. The model, which considers the reabsorption of emitted light within the leaf, allows good quantitative estimation of both upward and downward apparent spectral fluorescence yield (ASFY) at different excitation wavelengths from 400 nm to 700 nm. It also emphasizes the role of scattering in fluorescence emission by leaves having high chlorophyll content.

The elastic lidar equation contains two unknown atmospheric parameters, namely, the particulate optical extinction and backscatter coefficients, which are related through the lidar ratio (i.e., the particulate-extinction-to-backscatter ratio). So far, independent inversion of the lidar signal has been carried out by means of Raman lidars (usually limited to nighttime measurements), high-spectral-resolution lidars, or scanning elastic lidars under the assumption of a homogeneously vertically stratified atmosphere. In this paper, we present a procedure to obtain the lidar ratio at 532 nm by a combined Sunphotometer– aerosol-model inversion, where the viability of the solution is largely reinforced by assimilating categorized air-mass back-trajectory information. Thus, iterative lidar-ratio tuning to reconstruct the Sun-photometric aerosol optical depth (AOD) is additionally constrained by the air-mass back trajectories provided by the hybrid single-particle Lagrangian integratedtrajectory model. The retrieved lidar ratios are validated with inversions of lidar data based on the Klett–Fernald–Sasano algorithm and with the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET)- retrieved lidar ratios. The estimated lidar ratios concur with the AERONET-retrieved lidar ratios and with those of the well-known KFS inversion constrained with Sun-photometric AOD values and embedded single-scattering models. The proposed method can be applied to routinely extract climatological values of the lidar ratio using measurements of direct solar irradiance (more numerous than those of sky radiance).

The European Space Agency carried out the Sentinel-2 and Fluorescence Experiment (SEN2FLEX) campaign in Barrax (Spain) during the summer of 2005, with the main objective of observe solar induced fluorescence signal using the AirFLEX airborne instrument over different vegetation targets in order to verify signal suitability for observations from space as proposed in the FLEX mission. A highly precise atmospheric correction is mandatory for adequate measurements of the AirFLEX instrument; thus a complete characterization of the atmosphere was programmed in SEN2FLEX in order to document the presence of atmospheric aerosols above the experimental area, as their effects represent the major source of uncertainty in atmospheric correction algorithms. In this work, an analysis of the atmospheric data is presented focusing on its eventual application to atmospheric correction of satellite imagery. Validation of Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager (CASI) aerosol optical depth and columnar water vapor content retrievals has been included as an example of application to remote sensing products. A relevant feature was the arrival of a Saharan dust intrusion from 13 to 15 July, yielding the increase of aerosol optical depth at 550 nm from 0.1 to 0.5 because of changes in the vertical distribution of aerosols, with a transport layer located between 1.5 and 4 km. An accurate knowledge of these aerosol features will be relevant in future implementation of atmospheric correction code of the airborne and satellite hyperspectral imagery. Copyright 2008 by the American Geophysical Union.

International audience; Chlorophyll a fluorescence can be used as an early stress indicator. Fluorescence is also connected to photosynthesis so it can be proposed for global monitoring of vegetation status from a satellite platform. Nevertheless, the correct interpretation of fluorescence requires accurate physical models. The spectral shape of the leaf fluorescence free of any re-absorption effect plays a key role in the models and is difficult to measure. We present a vegetation fluorescence emission spectrum free of re-absorption based on a combination of measurements and modelling. The suggested spectrum takes into account the photosystem I and II spectra and their relative contribution to fluorescence, This emission spectrum is applicable to describe vegetation fluorescence in biospectroscopy and remote sensing

An automatic global and direct solar spectral irradiance system has been designed based on two LICOR spectroradiometers equipped with fibre optics and remote cosine sensors. To measure direct irradiance a sun tracker based on step motors has been developed. The whole system is autonomous and works continuously. From the measurements provided by this system a spectral irradiance database in the 330–1100 nm range has been created. This database contains normal direct and global horizontal irradiances as well as diffuse irradiance on a horizontal plane, together with total atmospheric optical thickness and aerosol optical depth.

[1] A study has been made of the column aerosols using solar irradiance extinction measurements at ground level in a boreal region (Sodankyla, Finland) during spring 2002. The aerosol properties have been related to air mass origin. In general, the aerosol levels were observed to be very low, independent of the air mass origin, with an aerosol optical depth (AOD) value at 500 nm of less than 0.09 ± 0.03. Two characteristic patterns were observed depending on whether the air masses originated in the north and west or from the south and east. In the first case (north and west origins) the aerosol load was very small, with very low optical depths in the range 0.03 ± 0.02 to 0.09 ± 0.03 for 500 nm wavelengths. The size distribution usually showed two modes, with a strong contribution from the large-particle mode, probably a consequence of the presence of maritime-type particles originating in the ocean. When the air masses originated from a south or east direction, the behavior was the opposite to that noted before. In these cases the AOD was rather larger, above all for air masses originating in central Europe and Russia with an average value at 500 nm of 0.14 ± 0.02.

We present measurements of the vertical structure of the aerosol extinction coefficient in the lower troposphere, up to five kilometers. Lidar profiles were collected at Armilla (680 m asl) and Pitres (1252 m asl) during the VELETA-2002 campaign, organized to analyze the effect of altitude and aerosols on ground-level UV spectral irradiance. Single-wavelength lidar signals are inverted to derive vertically resolved aerosol extinction coefficient and integrated to provide aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 532 nm. These results are compared with measurements of the aerosol optical depth at the same wavelength provided by Licor LI-1800 spectroradiometers located at several altitudes. Lidar traces show that most of the aerosol loading is present in the first 2.5 km layer before a high-dust Saharan air mass overflew the site. On the 17th of July evening, an elevated aerosol layer was detected between 2.5 and 3.5 km and during the following three days the aerosol vertical profile of the lower atmosphere showed Sahara dust layers, producing relatively high values for the optical depth.

This paper presents the results of the analysis of the spectral, global, and direct solar irradiance measurements in the visible range (400–700 nm) that were made in the framework of the first Iberian UV–visible (VIS) instruments intercomparison. The instruments used in this spectral range were four spectroradiometers: three Licor 1800s equipped with different receiver optics and one Optronic 754. For the direct solar irradiance measurements the spectroradiometers were equipped with collimators with different fields of view. Parallel studies have been carried out with the data given by the spectroradiometers with their original calibration file and with the same data that is corrected, following in situ calibration of the instruments using a laboratory reference lamp. To compare the series of spectral data the relative values of mean absolute deviation (MAD) and root-mean-square deviation (rmsd) have been used. The results obtained from the measurements of global irradiance show that the Licor 1800s presented very significant differences at the beginning and at the end of the day due to the deviation from ideal cosine response of the collection optics (i.e., cosine errors). This forced the analysis to be limited to the measurements corresponding to solar elevations higher than 30°. For this solar elevation range, the results of the intercomparison between the Licor instruments, before their in situ calibration, showed differences of about 5% in the visible range. The results from the measurements of direct irradiance show that, if correction factors are considered, these deviations are reduced to 3%, and when the Licors are compared with the Optronic, the deviations are less than 2%. This work was financed by the Spanish CICYT through the CLI97-0345-C05-04 project.

[1] The Digital Airborne Imaging Spectrometer Experiment (DAISEX) was carried out for the European Space Agency (ESA) in order to develop the potential of spaceborne imaging spectroscopy for a range of different scientific applications. DAISEX involved simultaneous data acquisitions using different airborne imaging spectrometers over test sites in southeast Spain (Barrax) and the Upper Rhine valley (Colmar, France, and Hartheim, Germany). This paper presents the results corresponding to the columnintegrated aerosol optical properties from ground-based spectroradiometer measurements over the Barrax area during the DAISEX campaign days in the years 1998, 1999, and 2000. The instruments used for spectral irradiance measurements were two Licor 1800 and one Optronic OL-754 spectroradiometers. The analysis of the spectral aerosol optical depth in the visible range shows in all cases the predominance of the coarse-particle mode over the fine-particle mode. The analysis of the back trajectories of the air masses indicates a predominance of marine-type aerosols in the lower atmospheric layers in all cases. Overall, the results obtained show that during the DAISEX there was a combination of maritime aerosols with smaller continental aerosols. INDEX TERMS: 0305 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801); 0345 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Pollution—urban and regional (0305); 0394 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Instruments and techniques; 3360 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Remote sensing; 4801 Oceanography: Biological and Chemical: Aerosols (0305); KEYWORDS: atmospheric composition and structure, instruments and techniques, remote sensing

This work deals with the retrieval of the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) needed to carry out the atmospheric correction of remote sensing data measured in Barrax (Spain) on 4 June 1999 in the framework of 1999 Digital Airbone Imaging Spectrometer Experiment (DAISEX'99). The AOT was estimated through three approaches based on: spectral extinction of direct solar irradiance at ground level, airborne nephelometer measurements at different altitudes, and backscatter lidar in the lower troposphere. We found extremely low AOT values due to a cold Atlantic front that swept across the Iberian Peninsula from west to east producing light rain over the test area on 2 June 1999. The results were solar irradiance extinction: 0.085±0.018; nephelometer: 0.063±0.020; lidar: 0.083±0.030. Nephelometer‐ and lidar‐derived values account for both extinction and absorption, assuming a single scattering albedo value of 0.90. Errors values include measurements and retrieval uncertainties as well as statistical variability. This work was supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) through the Observation Preparatory Program and the European Commission through STAAARTE Program.

Irradiation data, recorded on vertical surfaces facing north, south, east and west and on a horizontal surface every ten minutes during daylight hours from January–December 1992 in Valencia, Spain, have been compared with estimated solar irradiation from inclined-surface models. Results show that Hays model most accurately reproduces the variation in irradiation on all vertical surfaces. Hays model has been used to find the hourly variation in the optimum tilt angle for a South-facing solar collector in Valencia, Spain, and also to calculate the yearly average of this angle. This method has been compared with the results provided by another model that uses average monthly values of daily irradiation derived from the same experimental data, to calculate average monthly values of the optimum tilt angle. The results show that the method involving monthly averages is more accurate and easier to work with.

We present a preliminary study of the urban effects on the aerosol optical thickness. Since Valencia is close to the sea, the measurement campaigns were carefully planned in order to separate urban effects and the sea's influence. Measurements of spectral direct irradiance were taken simultaneously at rural continental, rural coastal and urban coastal sites. The distance between these locations was 50 km. The measurements were obtained using three Li-cor 1800 spectroradiometers provided with a radiance limiting tube with afield of view of 4.7 degrees. All the measurements were made under clear sky conditions. In order to avoid the uncertainties associated with the determination of the water vapor content and the other atmospheric constituents, the analysis of the optical thickness values was limited to the 400-670 nm band. The result corresponding to the aerosol optical thickness at wavelengths of 400 and 550 nm are presented. An analysis of their evolution with the optical air mass and of their relation with the characteristics of the wind and the relative humidity at ground level is also made.