ETL's transportable lower-troposphere ozone lidar and its applications in air-quality studies

A transportable ground-based differential absorption lidar specifically designed for ozone and aerosol profiling in the lower troposphere was developed at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Environmental Technology Laboratory (NOAA/ETL). The NOAA/ETL ozone lidar has the unique capability of measuring vertical profiles of ozone concentration from near the surface up to 3 km, and measuring vertical profiles of aerosol from the surface to about 10 km. The innovative hardware design and improved signal processing techniques make the system efficient, compact, and easily transportable. A recently implemented 2D scanning system provides the capability of measuring ozone concentrations and aerosol in a vertical plane. The lidar has been deployed in seven field experiments in California, Illinois, and Boulder, Colorado since summer 1993. Lidar observations of vertical profiles of ozone concentrations and ozone advection fluxes in Southern California during high ozone season revealed interesting structures of ozone distributions in the Los Angeles urban area, and near the Cajon Pass which is a major corridor of ozone transport from Los Angeles to the Mojave Desert.