Retrieval of aerosol extinction coefficients from ground-based 532nm lidar during APEC conference in Beijing

As an active remote sensing technique, ground-based lidar can detect the backscattered signals of atmospheric cloud and aerosol layers. The measured signals can be used to obtain the vertical profile information of aerosol extinction coefficients. The atmospheric aerosol is measured in Beijing during Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in early November 2014. Fernald method is chosen as the inversion method, and a comparison is made by using Klett’s method. Using the aerosol optical depth(AOD) measured by sunphotometer as a constraint data. The results are used for the analysis of the vertical distribution of aerosol extinction coefficients, three periods are considered, which including several days before, during and after the APEC conference. From the retrieved results of lidar measurement, it was found that the maximum value of extinction coefficients at vertical height in the beginning period reached beyond 2, but it decreased to the range of 0.05 during the conference. Then it gradually increased to more than 2 after the APEC conference. The results show that vertical distribution range of aerosol extinction coefficients decreased to 1km with increasing of AOD. The retrieved AOD results illustrate the extinction characteristics of aerosol，and it relates with the concentration distribution of atmospheric particles. According to the relationship between extinction coefficients and atmospheric visibility, the weather condition can be analyzed.