Impact of the Planetary Boundary Layer Height on the Surface Aerosol Optical and Microphysical Properties

Abstract

Lidar, nephelometer, and aethalometer measurements at the surface, co-located in time and space with Particulate Matter (PM) measurements, have been performed to investigate the impact of the daily evolution of the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) height on the aerosol optical and microphysical properties. Measurements were performed at a coastal site of southeastern Italy characterized by a shallow (<1000 m) PBL height. The Standard Deviation technique applied to the vertical profiles of both the lidar range corrected signal (RCS) and the linear volume depolarization ratio (δr) has been used to determine the daily evolution of the PBL height and highlight benefits and limits of using RCS and δr vertical profiles. It is shown that the PBL height, which drives the particle dispersion at the surface, significantly affects the optical and microphysical properties of the surface particles since the particle dispersion varies with their size and, consequently, the mean optical and microphysical properties of the surface particles are affected. The impact of meteorological conditions on the daily trend of the PBL height and the surface particle properties has also been highlighted.