Profiling of fine and coarse particle mass: case studies of Saharan dust and Eyjafjallaj ¨

The polarization lidar photometer networking (POLIPHON) method introduced to separate coarse-mode and fine-mode particle properties of Eyjafjallaj ¨ okull volcanic aerosols in 2010 is extended to cover Saharan dust events as well. Furthermore, new volcanic dust observations per- formed after the Grimsv¨ otn volcanic eruptions in 2011 are presented. The retrieval of particle mass concentrations re- quires mass-specific extinction coefficients. Therefore, a re- view of recently published mass-specific extinction coeffi- cients for Saharan dust and volcanic dust is given. Case stud- ies of four different scenarios corroborate the applicability of the profiling technique: (a) Saharan dust outbreak to central Europe, (b) Saharan dust plume mixed with biomass-burning smoke over Cape Verde, and volcanic aerosol layers originat- ing from (c) the Eyjafjallajeruptions in 2010 and (d) the Grimsv¨ otn eruptions in 2011. Strong differences in the ver- tical aerosol layering, aerosol mixing, and optical properties are observed for the different volcanic events.