The first intercomparison campaign of CARS reference lidar systems has started at MARS

MARS (Măgurele centre for Atmosphere and Radiation Studies) hosts one of three lidar calibration laboratories in ACTRIS, being responsible for ensuring the quality of the data measured by the 42 ACTRIS lidar stations.
The first intercomparison campaign of reference high-power lidar systems operated by the CARS Units in Romania and Germany is organized between September 12-30, 2022 at MARS.
 

Experts from the Ludwig Maximillian University in Munich (Dr. Volker Freudenthaler, Dr. Nikos Siomos) with the POLIS reference lidar are joining the specialists from Romania (Dr. Livio Belegante, Dr. Victor Nicolae, Dr. Razvan Pirloaga) with the RALI and ALPHA reference lidars in order to measure side-by-side and assess the performances of each of the systems. Moreover, experts from the University of Warsaw (Prof. Iwona Stachlewska, PhD Afwan Hafiz) will join the campaign starting on 19 September with the European Space Agency's EMORAL reference system. Quality Assurance tests are performed before sunrise and at noon, weather permitting. The data is analyzed in parallel by the experts (manual analysis) and with the automatic software newly developed at CARS. The goal is to optimize the automatic procedure for being further implemented at all lidar stations.

Part of the team working in the lidar calibration laboratory

ALPHA lidar switched on for the first measurements before sunrise