A NASA airborne lidar mission, supporting correlative measurements with the SAGE II satellite, was flown on the NASA-Wallops P-3 aircraft on 29 and 31 July from Peterson AFB, Colorado Springs. Data collected 29 July over Laramie, WY and SE Utah, and on 31 July over Laramie were similar (figure 29). Other correlative measurements supporting the experiment were in-situ balloon-borne aerosol sampling, H₂O vapor, O₃, balloon-borne NO₂, sun photometer, and high-altitude sampling from a NASA U-2 aircraft. Balloon data over Laramie showed peak concentrations of 1.5 particles (radius > 0.15 µm) per cm³ at 19-20 km altitude.

Figure 29. Airborne lidar data collected from Laramie, WY and SE Utah in support of SAGE II satellite observations, Germany, and Hawaii, showing altitudes of aerosol layers. Backscattering ratios are for the ruby wavelength of 0.69 µm. The integrated value shows total backscatter, expressed in steradians, integrated over 300-m intervals from the 16-33 km at Mauna Loa. Altitudes of maximum backscattering ratios and coefficients are shown for each layer at Mauna Loa.

Lidar profiles from Mauna Loa, Hawaii showed broader layers in early July than in June, suggesting vertical dispersal of Ruiz aerosols, but a sharper layer was detected on 28 July. Total backscatter was about the same as in June. At Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, altitudes and peak backscattering ratios in June were similar to those in May.

Information Contacts: William Fuller, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23665 USA; Thomas DeFoor, Mauna Loa Observatory, P.O. Box 275, Hilo, HI 96720 USA; H. Jäger, Fraunhofer-Institut für Atmosphärische Umweltforschung, Kreuzeckbahnstrasse 19, D-8l00 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany; James Rosen, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071 USA.