Arctic aerosol and cloud measurements in the frame of the Ice-Atmosphere-Ocean Observing System (IAOOS) project

In the frame of the French IAOOS Equipex project, a new observational network is to be developed for the ocean-ice-atmosphere survey over the Arctic starting in 2015 to better understand interactions and in particular the role of aerosols and clouds in the Arctic. Eye-safe lidar measurements will allow to profile aerosols and clouds for the atmospheric part, with the objective to perform regular measurements and characterize their vertical structure and optical properties complementing satellite observations. Radiation and meteorological parameters will simultaneously be measured at the surface. A first buoy has been prototyped and deployed in April 2014 at the Barneo site set by the Russian teams at the North Pole. Measurements with the first autonomous backscatter lidar ever deployed in the arctic have been taken from April to end of November 2014 before the buoy was lost. A second set of data were acquired during the N-ICE campaign north of Svalbard during winter 2015. Up to four profiles a day (10 mn sequence each) have been performed allowing a good sampling with respect to meteorological analyses. Observations have shown that the occurrence of low level clouds was higher than 90% during summer. New deployments are planned in summer 2015 as the start of the IAOOS network. The project is presented, instruments are described and first results are discussed.