Lidar measurement of the aerosol extinction profile in Black Sea coastal zone

The paper presents a lidar study of the volume extinction coefficient in th e atmosphere at the Bulgarian Black Sea coast in the presence of a breeze c irculation. An attempt is made to evaluate the influence of the meteorologi cal parameters on the optical properties of aerosol. In the case of a land- to-sea breeze and a layered structure of the atmosphere (stable stratificat ion), the height of the thermal internal boundary layer formed over the sea surface is compared with analytical models. In the case of an atmospheric convective boundary layer, an increase in the aerosol extinction with heigh t is observed. The results are compared with an analytical model of the aer osol extinction profile in a well-mixed marine boundary layer, in both case s, the experimental results are in a good agreement with the analytical mod els, (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.