Study of the properties of aerosols and the air quality index using a backscatter lidar system and AERONET Sunphotometer in the City of São Paulo, Brazil.

ABSTRACT

Between the months of July and September of 2007 during the so-called Brazilian dry season, an aerosol profiling campaign was carried out with a backscatter(ing) lidar system in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The main goal of this campaign was to observe the aerosol load in the troposphere (up to 10 km) and its daily behavior to check for air dispersion conditions, planetary boundary, and mixed layer height daily evolution. Lidar analysis provided aerosol optical properties in the visible range (532 nm) and quantities such as aerosol backscatter(ing) and extinction coefficients in conjunction with the aerosol optical thickness provided by a collocated AERONET Sunphotometer. Altogether 61 days were used in the dataset, which were compared with air quality indexation from the local air quality monitoring and management agency.