Measurement and analysis of aerosols, cirrus-contrails, water vapor and temperature in the upper troposphere with the Jungfraujoch LIDAR system

The impact of human activities on the global climate may lead to large disruptions of the economic, social and political status quo in the middle and long term. Understanding the dynamics of the Earth's climate is thus of paramount importance and one of the major scientific challenges of our time. The estimation of the relative contribution of the many components (interacting each other) of the Earth's climate system requires observation and continuous monitoring of various atmospheric physical and chemical parameters. Temperature, water vapor and greenhouse gases concentration, aerosol and clouds loads, and atmospheric dynamics are parameters of particular importance in this respect. The quantification of the anthropogenic influence on the dynamics of these above-mentioned parameters is of crucial importance nowadays but still affected by significant uncertainties. In the present context of these huge uncertainties in our understanding of how these different atmospheric compounds contribute to the radiative forcing, the research presented in this report is related to the following topics: Development of lidar-based remote sensing techniques for monitoring atmospheric compounds and processes Aerosols – cirrus – contrails optical properties up to the tropopause Water vapor mixing ratio and relative humidity estimation in the upper troposphere Temperature profiling in the upper troposphere-lower stratosphere Characterization of the long-range transported mineral aerosols (i.e. Saharan dust outbreaks) Planetary boundary layer-upper troposphere exchanges (i.e. August 2003 heatwave effect) In the above research frames, the development and application of measurement techniques for the monitoring of climate-change parameters, this work refers to the implementation of a multi-wavelength LIDAR1 system (JFJ - LIDAR)2 at the International Scientific Station of Jungfraujoch (ISSJ, 46°33' N, 7°59' E, at 3580 m ASL- above sea level). The JFJ3 station is situated above the planetary boundary layer (PBL) almost all year long and is located in a mountain pass linking the Swiss plateau to the North with the Rhone Valley to the South through the Aletsch glacier corridor. Measurements with the JFF-LIDAR system provide regular vertical and horizontal remote sensing of water vapor, temperature, and optical properties (backscatter and extinction coefficients) of aerosols, cirrus clouds and contrails in the upper troposphere (UT)4. The lidar system is based on the laser emission at 355, 532 and 1064 nm and on subsequent detection of both elastic (Mie) and inelastic (Raman) atmospheric backscatter light. The backscattering collected radiation is precisely: the elastic at 355, 532 and 1064 nm; the rotational-vibrational Raman radiation from nitrogen at ~ 387 nm, and from water vapor at ~ 407 nm as well as the pure rotational nitrogen/oxygen Raman excited at ~ 532 nm. The depolarization of the initially linearly polarized radiation was also detected at 532 nm and it was us