Aerosol layers characterization in the Eastern Mediterranean: Long-term lidar observations over Limassol, Cyprus

Rodanthi-Elisavet Mamouri; Argyro Nisantzi; Athina Savva; Maria Poutli; Holger Baars; Albert Ansmann; Dragos Ene; Diofantos Hadjimitsis

doi:10.1051/epjconf/202636202016

Open Access

Issue		EPJ Web Conf. Volume 362, 2026 31^st International Laser Radar Conference (ILRC 31) Held Together with the 22^nd Coherent Laser Radar Conference (CLRC 22)


Article Number		02016
Number of page(s)		2
Section		Lidar Measurements of Clouds and Aerosol
DOI		https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202636202016
Published online		09 April 2026

EPJ Web of Conferences 362, 02016 (2026)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202636202016

Aerosol layers characterization in the Eastern Mediterranean: Long-term lidar observations over Limassol, Cyprus

Rodanthi-Elisavet Mamouri^(a)^,(b), Argyro Nisantzi^(a)^,(b), Athina Savva^(a)^,(b), Maria Poutli^(a)^,(b), Holger Baars^(c), Albert Ansmann^(c), Dragos Ene^(b) and Diofantos Hadjimitsis^(a)^,(b)

^(a) Eratosthenes Centre of Excellence, Limassol, 3012, Cyprus
^(b) Department of Civil Engineering and Geomatics, Cyprus University of Technology Limassol, 3036, Cyprus
^(c) Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, 04318, Germany This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Published online: 9 April 2026

Abstract

Long term continuous vertically resolved aerosol measurements were performed by lidar in Limassol, Cyprus. Observations with the multiwavelength polarization Raman lidar PollyXT were conducted during CyCARE (Cyprus Cloud Aerosol and Precipitation EXperiment) from October 2016 to March 2018 as well as permanently since October 2020 at the ERATOSTHENES Centre of Excellence in Limassol, Cyprus. Co-located with the lidar, a sun photometer was also operated. During the 18-month measurement campaign, and the 3 years of continuous measurements, aerosol layers originated by different aerosol sources were detected frequently from ground to the cirrus level height. In this study, an overview of the measurement period is given. A detailed statistical analysis of the defined aerosol layers was performed to give information about sources, frequency, seasonality, and geometrical properties of the aerosol layers advected Cyprus providing for the first time a complete picture of aerosol vertical distribution over Cyprus.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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