An innovative compact lidar for atmospheric aerosol, water vapour and transmissivity measurements

The Naples observation station serves as a National Facility for the ACTRIS Aerosol Cloud and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure. In this frame, an innovative lidar system was recently made operational as part of the mobile unit for the atmospheric analysis of CeSMA (Centro Servizi Metrologici e Tecnologici Avanzati), at the University of Naples "Federico II". The system is compact and transportable, it uses two wavelengths to retrieve both elastic (355 nm and 532 nm) backscattered light and Raman echoes from N2 (386 nm) and H2O (407 nm), also providing depolarization analysis at 355 nm and 532 nm. It allows to carry out measurements of atmospheric transmissivity in the UV region as well. Measurements made by this lidar are illustrated showing how this compact, portable instrument can allow performing in-depth analysis of atmospheric particulate matter, obtaining experimental data on the optical properties of the particles and transmissivity of the atmosphere.