The variability of ozone vertical profiles in the Paris area is analyzed using 21 d of lidar monitoring of the lower-troposphere ozone vertical profiles and planetary boundary layer (PBL) vertical structure evolution in summer 2022. Characterization of the pollution regional transport is based on daily ozone analysis of the Copernicus Atmospheric Service (CAMS) ensemble model and on backward trajectories. The CAMS simulations of the ozone plume between the surface and 3 km are consistent with the ozone measurements. Comparisons with the tropospheric ozone column retrieved by satellite observations of the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) show that IASI observations can capture the day-to-day variability of the 0-3 km ozone column only when the maximum altitude of the ozone plume is higher than 2 km. The lidar ozone vertical structure above the city center is also in good agreement with the PBL growth during the day and with the formation of the residual layer during the night. The analysis of four ozone pollution events shows that the thickness of the PBL during the day and the advection of regional-scale plumes above the PBL can significantly change the ozone concentrations above Paris. Advection of ozone-poor concentrations in the free troposphere during a Saharan dust event is able to mitigate ozone photochemical production. On the other hand, the advection of a pollution plume from continental Europe with high ozone concentrations > 140 mu g m-3 maintained high concentrations in the surface layer despite a temperature decrease and cloud cover development.

Extreme heavy precipitation events (HPEs) pose a threat to human life but remain difficult to predict because of the lack of adequate high frequency and high-resolution water vapor (WV) observations in the low troposphere (below 3 km). To fill this observational gap, we aim at implementing an integrated prediction tool, coupling network measurements of WV profiles, and a numerical weather prediction model to precisely estimate the amount, timing, and location of rainfall associated with HPEs in southern France (struck by ~ 7 HPEs per year on average during the fall). The Water vapor Lidar Network Assimilation (WaLiNeAs) project will deploy a network of 6 autonomous Raman WV lidars around the Western Mediterranean to provide measurements with high vertical resolution and accuracy to be assimilated in the French Application of Research to Operations at Mesoscale (AROME-France) model, using a four-dimensional ensemble-variational approach with 15-min updates. This integrated prediction tool is expected to enhance the model capability for kilometer-scale prediction of HPEs over southern France up to 48 h in advance. The field campaign is scheduled to start early September 2022, to cover the period most propitious to heavy precipitation events in southern France. The Raman WV lidar network will be operated by a consortium of French, German, Italian, and Spanish research groups. This project will lead to recommendations on the lidar data processing for future operational exploitation in numerical weather prediction (NWP) systems.

New drifting platforms have been deployed within the French project IAOOS (Ice-Atmosphere-Ocean Observing System) in the Arctic since 2014. Radiation and meteorological parameters are measured at the surface and profiles of aerosol and cloud properties are obtained with autonomous backscatter lidar systems. These platforms are indeed equipped for ocean-ice-atmosphere studies over the Arctic to better understand processes and interactions controlling sea-ice changes [1]. As stations in the Arctic are sparse, they can also be used as reference measurements for satellite observations. They are deployed in the Arctic almost every year and allow to perform regular measurements of the vertical structure and optical properties of the atmosphere in complement to satellite observations. Other data on snow, ice and ocean are simultaneously measured. Comparisons were made with CALIPSO/CALIOP observations. Measurements on the atmosphere are presented and results are discussed.

A high spectral resolution (HSR) measurement capability in the ultraviolet has been added to the 3-wavelength-2-polarization-backscatter lidar LNG (lidar aerosols nouvelle génération) and tested during several flights. The system includes a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) as a spectral discriminator and does not require any frequency locking between the emitter and the interferometer. Results obtained during test flights show that the backscatter and extinction coefficients at 355 nm can be measured with a relative precision of 10% for 60 m and 240 m vertical resolution, respectively, in aerosol layers of 10-6  m-1 sr-1 backscatter coefficient with a 30-km horizontal resolution. The same relative precision is obtained in cirrus clouds of a 2×10-5  m-1 sr-1 backscatter coefficient for the same vertical resolution and a horizontal resolution reduced to 5 km. The capacity of the system to perform wind velocity measurements is also demonstrated with precisions in the range of 1 to 2  ms-1. Particle-to-total backscatter ratio and line-of-sight speed measurements have been performed on ground echoes; averaged data show biases less than 1% and 0.15  ms-1, respectively.

The FENNEC program aims to improve our knowledge of both the role of the Saharan Heat Low (SHL) on the West African monsoon and the interactions between the African continent and the Mediterranean basin through the Saharan dust transport. The Saharan desert is the major source of mineral dust in the world and may significantly impact the air quality over the Western Europe by increasing the particular matter content. Two lidar systems were operated by the French component of the FENNEC project: an airborne lidar which was flown aboard the French Falcon 20 research aircraft and a ground-based lidar which was located in the southeastern part of Spain, close to Marbella. The presence of dust in the Saharan atmospheric boundary layer has been easily highlighted using the lidars and confirmed by ground-based sunphotometer and observations from both MODIS and SEVIRI spaceborne instruments. The simultaneous use of the sunphotometer-derived Angstrom exponent and the lidar-derived backscatter to extinction ratio is appeared to be a good approach to separate the optical contribution of dust from local aerosols for the coastal site. Over Spain, the dust layer was mainly located above the planetary boundary layer with several kilometers thick. Over the tropical Atlantic Ocean and the Mauritania the airborne lidar shows a high planetary boundary layer (~5 km above the mean sea level) associated to strong aerosol optical thickness (> 0.8 at 532 nm). The airborne lidar data have been inverted using both MODIS and SEVIRI-derived aerosol optical thickness. The differences between dust optical properties close to and remote from the sources will be discussed.

We have developed a new airborne UV lidar for the forest canopy and deployed it in the Landes forest (France). It is the first one that: (i) operates at 355 nm for emitting energetic pulses of 16 mJ at 20 Hz while fulfilling eye-safety regulations and (ii) is flown onboard an ultra-light airplane for enhanced flight flexibility. Laser footprints at ground level were 2.4 m wide for a flying altitude of 300 m. Three test areas of ~500 × 500 m2 with Maritime pines of different ages were investigated. We used a threshold method adapted for this lidar to accurately extract from its waveforms detailed forest canopy vertical structure: canopy top, tree crown base and undergrowth heights. Good detection sensitivity enabled the observation of ground returns underneath the trees. Statistical and one-to-one comparisons with ground measurements by field foresters indicated a mean absolute accuracy of ~1 m. Sensitivity tests on detection threshold showed the importance of signal to noise ratio and footprint size for a proper detection of the canopy vertical structure. This UV-lidar is intended for future innovative applications of simultaneous observation of forest canopy, laser-induced vegetation fluorescence and atmospheric aerosols.

The airborne water vapor differential absorption lidar LEANDRE II has been achieved in 1995. It has been implemented on board the French Research Aircraft (ARAT) and has been successfully flown in September and October 1995. System performance is detailed, and comparisons between lidar profiles and in-situ measurements, showing r.m.s. differences smaller than 0.3 g/kg are presented.