Balis Dimitris¹, Amiridis Vassilis², Giannakaki Elina¹, Boubouloudis Fanis¹

¹Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
²Institute for Space Applications and Remote Sensing, National Observatory of Athens

Thessaloniki EARLINET station started correlative measurements for CALIPSO since July 2006. Each observation lasts a minimum of 1 hour centered around the overpass time, while longer record of measurements are performed for special case studies. In this study we present preliminary results of selected case studies such as, Saharan dust layer and forest fires. In order to investigate the optical properties of aerosols, we have used the synergetic use of a ground based and a satellite lidar instrument. A two-wavelength lidar system that combines Raman and elastic-backscatter observations performs measurements above Thessaloniki (40.5°N, 22.9°E, 50 m asl) in coincidence with CALIPSO overpasses. CALIPSO combines an innovative combination of an active lidar instrument with passive infrared and visible images to probe the vertical structure and properties of aerosols. For verification purposes, Saharan dust layers and biomass burning aerosols were related to air mass back-trajectory analysis and model calculations from the DREAM dust model in conjunction with satellite data analysis (ATSR World Fire Atlas, MODIS, SeaWiFS). The main objective of this study is to compare the resulting profiles of attenuated backscatter coefficient derived from CALIPSO with the backscatter profiles derived from our ground-based lidar. Moreover, a comparison of extinction coefficients for night measurements is including in this study.