Identifying Asian dust with digital imaging of atmospheric laser light scatter

Digital imaging of atmospheric scatter of laser light was used to detect aerosol layers. A CCD camera with wide angle optics and laser line filter was located far (100 m or more) from a vertically pointing 532 nm laser, and imaged the entire laser beam at once. The data image of each exposure was used in conjunction with aerosol phase functions derived from AERONET radiometry data to derive aerosol extinction profiles as a function of altitude and time. These profiles combined with radiosonde data and HYSPLIT atmospheric back-trajectories were used to identify Asian dust aerosol layers.