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Projecte ofert

Títol: Assessment of the retrieval uncertainty of range-resolved aerosol microphysical properties using the BOREAL algorithm

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Director/a: RODRÍGUEZ GÓMEZ, ALEJANDRO

Departament: TSC

Títol: Assessment of the retrieval uncertainty of range-resolved aerosol microphysical properties using the BOREAL algorithm

Data inici oferta: 27-10-2026     Data finalització oferta: 27-05-2027


Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
    MU AEROSPACE S&T 21
    MU AI4CI
    MU DRONS
    MU EM CODAS 1
    MU EM CODAS 2
    MU MASTEAM 2015
Tipus: Individual
 
Lloc de realització: EETAC
 
Paraules clau:
Atmospheric aerosols, Air-quality, Meteorology, Climate evolution, Data fusion
 
Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
Atmospheric aerosols (particulate matter suspended in the atmosphere) have an important impact on life in the earth at all times scales, from air-quality issues (usually, but not always, at short time scale), meteorology (solar radiation, cloud formation) and climate evolution (long time scale).
Lidar (acronym of light detection and ranging), or laser radar, is an important tool to measure distributions of atmospheric aerosols with range resolution. Typically, an atmospheric aerosol lidar can measure the optical coefficients (extinction and backscatter coefficients) of aerosols present throughout the troposphere (typically up to 12 km at mid latitudes) and some instruments are designed to measure in the stratosphere. The retrieval of aerosol microphysical properties from the measured optical coefficients is of utmost importance to assess the final impact of aerosols. From an engineering perspective, lidar retrieval combines optical instrumentation, signal processing, inverse methods and numerical data analysis.
The Remote Sensing Research Group (RSLAB) within the CommSensLab Research Center at UPC Department of Signal Theory and Communications, operates an advanced multiwavelength aerosol lidar station belonging to the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET, https://www.earlinet.eu), currently part of the Aerosols, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure (ACTRIS ERIC, https://www.actris.eu/), which facilitates intense interactions with other European and worldwide research groups. EARLINET lidar stations are committed to perform measurements accessible through a public and free database.
BOREAL algorithm
The Laboratory of Atmospheric Optics of University of Lille (France), has developed the Basic algOrithm for REtrieval of Aerosol with Lidar BOREAL to retrieve basic aerosol microphysical properties (volume size distribution, refractive index) from lidar-only data (optical coefficients, plus depolarization coefficients provided by some advanced lidar instruments) with range resolution. However, BOREAL currently provides the retrieved microphysical properties without an associated estimate of their retrieval uncertainty. Quantifying this uncertainty is essential to assess the reliability of the retrieved products.
Goal
The proposed work aims at exploring the retrieval uncertainty associated with the aerosol microphysical outputs which results both from intrinsic limitations of the inversion procedure and from the algorithm input data uncertainties. Monte Carlo simulations will be exploited to develop a numerical workflow for uncertainty propagation and statistical analysis of the retrieved outputs. Its final result is expected to be a piece of software producing BOREAL-retrieved aerosol microphysical properties for selected aerosol layers with error bars that can be considered as the retrieval uncertainty.
Methods and tools
Input data (i.e. profiles of backscatter and extinction coefficients and of depolarization ratios at several wavelengths, along with their estimated uncertainties) generated by the CommSensLab EARLINET/ACTRIS lidar station, as well as by other EARLINET lidar stations in Europe, corresponding to different atmospheric situations and aerosol types, will be obtained from the public and free EARLINET database (https://data.earlinet.org/earlinet/). From the uncertainties associated to each input parameter, a sufficient number of random realizations will be produced and used as inputs to BOREAL.
BOREAL has both an online version and a downloadable version to be used in local computers . It is expected that the work uses mainly the local version.
The student will also have access to auxiliary information from the AERONET Sun/Lunar photometer network (https://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/) and from the MPLNET micro-pulse lidar network (https://mplnet.gsfc.nasa.gov/), both of which include a CommSensLab operated instrument.
 
Orientació a l'estudiant:
Person interested in optical remote sensing, in particular lidar remote sensing, for atmospheric applications, not afraid of using statistics and programming. Interest in acquiring knowledge on databases of geophysical parameters. Motivated to learn about atmospheric composition and aerosol characterization, including the role of atmospheric aerosols in air quality, meteorology and climate. Eager to learn and use Python and Matlab.
The project is particularly suited for students interested in optical instrumentation, signal processing, inverse problems, numerical methods and data analysis.
 
Requereix activitats hardware: No
 
Requereix activitats software: Sí    Sistema operatiu:     Disc (Gb):
 
Horari d'atenció a estudiants per a l'assignació de projecte:
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