Construction and first atmospheric observations of a high spectral resolution lidar system in Argentina in the frame of a trinational Japanese-Argentinean-Chilean collaboration

Atmospheric monitoring stations are being developed in Argentina. The most important targets are volcanic ashes, desert aerosols in particular Patagonian dust and biomass burning aerosols. Six stations deployed in the Patagonian Region and Buenos Aires have lidar systems, sun photometers integrated to the AERONET/NASA monitoring network, in situ optical particle analyzers, four solar radiation sensors (pyranometer, UVA, UVB and GUV), and meteorological equipment. The stations are in the main international airports of the Regions (San Carlos de Bariloche, Comodoro Rivadavia, Neuquen, Rio Gallegos) and in Buenos Aires (Aeroparque Jorge Newbery and at CEILAP/CITEDEF). CEILAP and the National Institute of Environmental Studies (NIES) at Tsukuba, Japan developed the first iodine cell-based high spectral resolution lidar (HSRL) in Argentina to add in the lidar network. We upgraded the standard CEILAP multi-wavelength Raman lidar adding the laser frequency tuning system and the 532 iodine-filtered channel at the reception to built the HSRL. HSRL will provide daytime and nighttime direct observation of the aerosol and cloud optical properties (backscatter and extinction) without the pre-assumption of the lidar ratio. This work shows the design and construction of the first Argentinean HSRL. We also show the first lidar observations done in the country with this kind of lidar.