Detection of May 2006 Saharan dust outbreak over Granada, Spain, by combination of active and passive remote sensing

During May 2006 a severe Saharan dust outbreak affected the Iberian Peninsula. During this event that lasted almost a whole week a large amount of mineral particles were present in the atmospheric column. In this work we present some results on this particular event that has been monitored at Granada, Spain (37.16°N, 3.6°W and 680 m a.m.s.l.) using different types of instrumentation. To investigate the optical properties of atmospheric aerosols, we used a combination of passive and active remote sensing, including Lidar system and radiometers, together with in situ techniques to characterize the physical properties of the aerosol. Features of the mineral aerosol outbreak are discussed in combination with other external information sources like back trajectory analyses. Our analyses are based mainly on the information obtained on the columnar properties of the atmospheric aerosol, although considerations were done on the atmospheric aerosol characteristics at the surface boundary layer.