Aerosol Optical Properties
Résumé
In this chapter, we review the measured optical properties of different aerosol types observed in the Mediterranean region, from both ground-based and aircraft in situ measurements and from remote sensing. We focus our description on the most relevant optical parameters used in radiative forcing calculations, namely, the aerosol optical depth (AOD) and its spectral dependence (Angström exponent, AE), the single scattering albedo (SSA) and the asymmetry parameter (g). We also consider the aerosol backscatter to extinction ratio (BER), which is a key parameter in the inversion of lidar profiles for deriving the vertical distribution of the aerosol extinction.