Contribution of EARLINET/ACTRIS to the summer 2013 Special Observing Period of the ChArMEx project: monitoring of a Saharan dust event over the western and central Mediterranean

In the framework of the Chemistry-Aerosol MediterraneanExperiment ChArMEx; http://charmex.lsce.ipsl.fr/ initiative, a field campaign took place in the western Mediterranean Basinbetween 10 June and 5 July 2013 within the ADRIMED Aerosol Direct Radiative Impact on the regional climate in the MEDiterraneanregion project. The scientific objectives of ADRIMED are the characterization of the most common ‘ Mediterraneanaerosols’ and their direct radiative forcingcolumn closure and regional scale. During 15–24 June a multi-intrusion dust event took place over the western and central Mediterranean Basin. Extra measurements were carried out by some EARLINET/ACTRIS European Aerosol Research LidarNetwork /Aerosols, Clouds, and Trace gases Research InfraStructure Network, http://www.actris.net/ lidarstations in Spain and Italy, in particular on 22 June in support to the flight over southern Italy of the Falcon20 aircraft involved in the campaign. This article describes the physical and optical properties of dust observed at the different lidarstations in terms of dust plume centre of mass, optical depth, lidarratio, and particle depolarization ratio. To link the differences found in the origin of dust plumes, the results are discussed on the basis of back-trajectories and air-and space-borne lidars. This work puts forward the collaboration between a European research infrastructure ACTRIS and an international project ChArMEx on topics of interest for both parties, and more generally for the atmospheric community.