Analysis of aerosol transport over southern Poland in August 2015 based on a synergy of remote sensing and backward trajectory techniques

Lufft’s CHM 15k “Nimbus” ceilometer and a collocated Cimel sunphotometer were used, in tandem with satellite data, to observe the transport of atmospheric aerosols over Raciborz, Poland, during an exceptionally warm month of August 2015. Two distinct periods are identified: increased aerosol optical thickness (AOT) values, exceeding 0.65, during August 6 to 13 concurrent with the planetary boundary layer elevated up to ∼2.5 km and thin aerosol layers up to 7 km above ground visible from August 25 to 27. A newly developed scheme for backward air mass trajectory analysis is employed. The scheme utilizes satellite data on thermal anomalies as well as multiangle imaging of aerosol clouds. The obtained retrievals provide evidence that aerosols of biomass burning type were present during the first period, originating from a strong episode of wildfires in Ukraine. Moreover, satellite AOT data from the MODIS instrument show that a significant part of the observed aerosol was accumulated during transport between the region of intense biomass burning and the receptor, Raciborz. The same analysis scheme suggests that a long-range transport of biomass burning products from the United States was a source of the layers observed during the second period. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI. [DOI: 10.1117/1.