Analysis of atmospheric aerosol properties using lidar measurements and their impact on radiative budget in Barcelona over the past 20 years

Aerosols are significant atmospheric constituents that modulate radiation and cloud processes. We evaluated 17-year aerosol profile trends in Barcelona, Spain, from lidar measurements. In summer aerosol reaches 5 km, while in the other seasons it exhibits clear exponential decay. Sahara dust transport affects all seasons, with winter layers above and others penetrating the boundary layer. This study informs the formation of haze and urban preservation strategies in the Mediterranean. The analysis puts in evidence that the averaged net radiative effect is of cooling at both surface level and top of the atmosphere.
This work has been made possible through the efforts of many people, whom it would be too long to mention, and the funding of many grants through the years, in particular European projects of different framework programmes (FP5 EARLINET project (ID EVR1-CT-1999-40003), FP6 EARLINET-ASOS (ID: 25991), FP7 ACTRIS (ID: 262254), H2020 ACTRIS-2 (ID: 654109), ACTRIS-PPP (ID: 739530), ACTRIS IMP (ID: 871115) and ATMO-ACCESS (ID: 101008004)), projects of the Spanish National Research Programmes (refs. TIC 431/93, AMB96-1144-C02-01, REN2000-1907-CE, REN2000-1754-C02-02 / CLI, REN2003-09753-C02-C02 / CLI, REN2003-09753-C02-C CGL2008- 01330-E/CLI 02 / CLI, REN2002-12784-E, CGL2005-5131-E, CGL2006-27108-E/CLI, CGL2006-26149-E/CLI, CGL2007-28871-/CLI, CTM2006-27154-E/TECNO, TEC2006-07850/TCM, TEC2009-09106, TEC2012-34575, TEC2015-63832-P and PID2019-103886RB-I00), the project of the Catalan Regional Government IMMPACTE, and the ESA project No. nº 21487/08/NL/HE. The support of the European Union through NextGenerationEU funds is also gratefully acknowledged.
Peer Reviewed
Postprint (author's final draft)