News
JPL lidar SMOL-1 selected for air quality measurement demonstration at the NASA booth of the 2023 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
October 10, 2023
The JPL-TMF Lidar Team was invited to deploy SMOL-1 as part of the NASA's portfolio of air quality measuring instruments for demonstration at the event. The set of NASA-run instruments on display included the SMOL-1 lidar, a ceilometer, an ozonesonde and a surface photometer. Thousands of Balloon Fiesta visitors learned with enthousiasm from JPLers Fernando Chouza and Thierry Leblanc how lidars and ozonesondes work, how they are used for the measurement of ozone and aerosols, and why it is essential to conduct these measurements from the surface to the upper stratosphere.
JPL lidar instruments TMTOL, SMOL-1 and SMOL-2 contribute air quality measurements to the AEROMMA 2023 campaign, and to the validation of TEMPO
September 1, 2023
During summer 2023, the JPL-TMF Lidar Team deployed their latest portable ozone differential absorption lidars SMOL-1 and SMOL-2 in the L.A. Basin to contribute ozone profiles to the 2023 AEROMMA-Los Angeles Air Quality campaign and to the validation of NASA's first Earth Venture instrument TEMPO. SMOL-1 was deployed on the JPL campus in Pasadena, while SMOL-2 was deployed on the CalState University campus of San Bernardino (CSUSB). Both mobile systems as well as the fixed TMTOL system performed nominally and provided unprecedented timeseries of ozone at three Southern California locations simultaneously. These measurements, combined with aircraft measurements from the AEROMMA campaign, will contribute to advance our understanding of urban pollution in a complex terrain like that of the L.A. basin, and will provide "ground-truth" reference measurements for the validation of TEMPO.
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JPL-TMF Lidar Group develops two mini-lidars and readies for AEROMMA Campaign, and NASA TEMPO Mission validation
May 23, 2023
Over the past few months, the TMF Lidar Team has developed and tested two new, compact and affordable tropospheric differential absorption ozone lidars named SMOL-1 and SMOL-2 (Small Mobile Ozone Lidar). The measurement technique is similar to that used by the NDACC/TOLNet TMTOL lidar at TMF (quadrupled Nd:YAG laser and Raman cells), but the hardware is much more compact and the total cost capped near $80k, enabling a new level of versatility for field deployment and network-like monitoring capability.
Details in Chouza, F. and T. Leblanc, (2023), SMOL - Small Mobile Ozone Lidar.
TMF Tropospheric Ozone Lidar (TMTOL) tracks elevated ozone in the San Gabriel Mountains
April 23, 2021
A recent study using 140 consecutive hours of lidar rmeasurements at TMF in June 2020 showed extended periods of ozone in excess of 90 ppbv in the bounday layer and just above it, thus allowing a clear attribution of its origin.
JPL Lidar at Mauna Loa (MLSOL) records highest stratospheric aerosol levels since Mt. Pinatubo era
June 10, 2020
Using muti-decadal aerosol time series measured by the JPL stratospheric ozone lidar located at Mauna Loa Observatory (Hawaii), as well as satellite measurements, this study shows that stratospheric aerosols in the Northern Hemisphere have reached their highest level in 2019 since the post-Pinatubo eruption era (in the early/mid-1990s). This high aerorol content was the result of two large volcanic eruptions, and an intense wildfire season during boreal summer, injecting large quantities of smoke in the stratosphere.
