Abstract
Three ground-based portable low power consumption micro lidars (MULID) have been built and deployed at three remote sites in Banizoumbou (Niger), Cinzana (Mali) and M'Bour (Senegal) in the framework of the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (AMMA) project for the characterization of aerosols optical properties. A description of the instrument and a discussion of the data inversion method, including a careful analysis of measurement uncertainties (systematic and statistical errors), are presented. Some case studies of typical lidar profiles observed over the Banizoumbou site during 2006 are shown and discussed with respect to the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) 7-day back-trajectories and the biomass burning emissions from the Combustion Emission database for the AMMA campaign.
Acknowledgements
Based on a French initiative, AMMA was built by an international scientific group and is currently funded by a large number of agencies, especially from France, the UK, the USA and Africa. It has been the beneficiary of a major financial contribution from the European Community's Sixth Framework Research Programme. Detailed information on scientific coordination and funding is available on the AMMA International website at www.amma-international.org.