Comparison of SAGE II and lidar stratospheric aerosol extinction datasets after the Mt Pinatubo eruption (Philippines)

Both observations and modeling demonstrate that stratospheric aerosols from intense explosive volcanic eruptions cause several different effects on weather and climate. The main effect is the cooling of the earth's surface between one and three years after the eruption. Stratospheric heating, winter warming on the Northern Hemisphere continental areas, ozone depletion and cirrus cloud seeding are several other effects attributed to stratospheric aerosols. Studying the stratospheric aerosol features and their effects on weather and climate requires a precise knowledge of their physical and optical properties. Accurate volcanic climate effects simulations using state of the art general circulation models require detailed and precise information about stratospheric aerosol concentration, distribution in space and time, and optical properties. Satellite aerosol extinction measurements are the main source of information for such studies, however they have gaps because of missing data and time and space coverage. Although lidar aerosol backscattering measurements have been recognized for a long time as a valuable complementary source to the satellite information, they have not been used so far for such a goal. A necessary step for combining both sources of information is the comparison between them, but only very few and limited ones have been conducted. I conducted the most comprehensive comparison ever between lidar and SAGE II aerosol extinction, covering the two and half years after the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption. I address the crucial issue of the aerosol extinction variability at the daily scale and I calculated its quantitative magnitudes for the first time. Using both SAGE II coincident sunrise-sunset measurements and lidar measurements one and two days apart I determine it ranges between 50 and 150%. I compared extinction-derived profiles from five lidars with space and time coincident SAGE II extinction measurements. Three lidars are in the tropics and two in midlatitudes, making the comparison representative geographically. The two sets of backscattering-to-extinction coefficients tested show good results. Comparison results show that the magnitude of the extinction differences between both instruments is in the same range that the aerosol extinction variability. The dataset I have produced will play an important role in future aerosol data assimilation.