Since late 80's we have developed LIDAR systems for the study of the atmosphere, namely the quantitative observations of the optical properties of the clouds and aerosols, and the measurements of the concentration of several constituents (i.e., ozone, water vapour, mesospheric sodium, etc.).
Along 30 years-long activities, we have designed and built LIDAR systems that have probed almost all the atmosphere layers:
➢ from the mesosphere, with the observations of structure of the sodium layer, located at about 90km height, and its interaction with the atmospheric waves;
➢ to the stratosphere, by following here the evolution of the ozone and the aerosol layers, also during severe events as the huge volcanic eruptions, like Pinatubo in 1991;
➢ and finally, we focused our attention to the troposphere using Raman LIDARs for the profiling the water vapor mixing ratio and cloud liquid water content, as well as of the vertical profiles of the aerosol optical properties on hourly, daily, monthly and seasonal scales.
Most of the measurements have been taken during the EARLINET/EC, EARLINET-ASOS/EC, EARLINET-CALIPSO/ESA and AUGER projects.
In addition, in the framework of an agreement with the Ministero dell'Ambiente e del Territorio, we perform the regular monitoring of the ozone vertical profile with balloon born sensors and of the UV radiation at ground by pyranometers.
All these activities are also used for outreach and teaching-educational exchanges at university level and involving external schools of any degree.
The team involved in the above mentioned activities is composed by Vincenzo Rizi (Researcher, senior scientist) and Marco Iarlori (Technician, senior scientist), and is technically assisted by Vinicio Argentieri (Technician) and Alberto Cirella (Technician).