Papayannis, AGalani, EHamonou, EChazette, PBalis, DSchneider, XAncellet, GDulac, FWe present the results of our investigations into the vertical structure of several North African dust plumes exported to the Mediterranean in 1997. Two backscatter lidar systems were operated in the western and eastern parts of the Mediterranean basin during dust events identified using Meteosat visible images. Dust transport soundings have shown that dust particles are trapped and transported inside well-defined layers in the free troposphere. In general, the dust transport appeared to be multilayered, with several distinct layers at different altitudes between 1.5 and 5 km. The analysis of Meteosat IR images, the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer aerosol index, and back-trajectories clearly shows that these layers have different origins in Africa. Finally, in addition to the free troposphere transport, the presence of dust particles inside the planetary boundary layer has been assessed and quantified for two particular events with aerosol optical thickness of 0.3-0.4. using simultaneous lidar and Sun photometer measurements. In one case only, significant dust load (dust optical thickness of ∼0.1) occurred in the boundary layer. Copyright 1999 by the American Geophysical Union.http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/1307422270104D1810.1029/1999JD900257ISI:000082789200015222570747-7309engAMER GEOPHYSICAL UNIONJournal of Geophysical Research D: AtmospheresTotal Ozone Mapping SpectrometerPlanetary Boundary LayerOptical PropertiesAerosol Optical ThicknessplumetroposphereMediterranean BasinFree Troposphereatmospheric transportDynamical ProcessesBoundary LayerVertical Structurelidaratmospheric structuredustAerosol IndexCharacterization of the vertical structure of Saharan dust export to the Mediterranean basinjournalArticle1999Δημοσίευση σε περιοδικόPublication in journalΜετεωρολογία και Επιστήμες της ατμόσφαιραςMeteorology and Atmospheric Sciencesisi - Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences covers those resources that deal with the atmosphere and its phenomena, especially weather and weather forecasting. Resources in this category are concerned with the atmosphere's temperature, density, winds, clouds, precipitation and other characteristics, as well as the structure and evolution of the atmosphere in terms of external influences and the basic laws of physics. This category also includes resources dealing with climatology.Επιστημονικό άρθροScientific articleΕθνικό Μετσόβιο ΠολυτεχνείοGreek Aggregator OpenArchives.gr | National Documentation Centre (EKT)other