Airborne lidar measurements of aerosol and ozone above the Canadian oil sands region
Abstract. Aircraft-based lidar measurements of atmospheric aerosol and ozone were
conducted to study air pollution from the oil sands extraction industry in
northern Alberta. Significant amounts of aerosol were observed in the
polluted air within the surface boundary layer, up to heights of 1 to 1.6 km above ground. The ozone mixing ratio measured in the polluted boundary
layer air directly above the oil sands industry was equal to or less than the
background ozone mixing ratio. On one of the flights, the lidar measurements
detected a layer of forest fire smoke above the surface boundary layer in
which the ozone mixing ratio was substantially greater than the background.
Measurements of the linear depolarization ratio in the aerosol backscatter
were obtained with a ground-based lidar and this aided in the discrimination
between the separate emission sources from industry and forest fires. The
retrieval of ozone abundance from the lidar measurements required the
development of a method to account for the interference from the substantial
aerosol content within the polluted boundary layer.