Lucia Mona (Early Adopter)

Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IMAA)

Applied Research Topic: 

Aerosol optical properties in polar regions with ICESat-2 lidar.

Potential Applications: 

Climate; Air quality (effects on health and environment); Volcanic Hazards

Abstract: 

Aerosol content over Polar Regions could provide an estimate on if and how anthropogenic activities impact on aerosol condition in remote region. Aerosol measurements from satellite over ice-covered region are extremely complex for passive sensors. Underneath bright surfaces and the expected low aerosol content reduce the reliability of retrieval algorithm and the signal-to-noise ratio respectively. Low sun angle conditions for these regions makes the situation even worse.  The ICESAT2 lidar could overcome all these problems, even if the real feasibility of aerosol study through Icesat2 backscatter signals has to be investigated.

Recent studies demonstrated that the aerosol content in Arctic is mainly driven by EU emissions, even if an assessment is needed about it. Icesat2 data could be essential for this aim. Integrated study about clouds is also of interest.  Icesat2 derived aerosol optical properties would be very valuable for investigating the impact of aerosol on cloud formation, optical properties and therefore on a radiation budget and ice cover change. Vertical profiles of aerosol optical properties over Polar Regions are provided by CALIOP lidar, a polarization backscatter lidar on-board CALIPSO polar satellite operative since June 2006.  A new lidar-onboard polar satellite mission is planned by ESA jointly to JAXA: EarthCARE (Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer) scheduled for launch in 2016. The availability of aerosol optical properties vertical profiles over Polar Regions by Icesat2 and CALIOP (and then EarthCARE) would provide a long-term data record of aerosol content over polar region for air quality, climate change and climatological applications. The simultaneous availability of  these data from different satellite platforms would improve the spatial coverage, and therefore the application of these data for local studies.

This project would test the Icesat capability of retrieving aerosol optical properties, data of interest for investigating local air quality (effects on health and environment) and global climate change.

SDT Member Partner: 
Co-Investigator(s): 
  • Giuseppe D'Amico, CNR-IMAA
  • Aldo Amodeo, CNR-IMAA
End Users: 

NASA, policy makers at local (Polar regions) and global (climate change) scale; Examples: Aerocom, WMO

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