Three years of remote sensing of Pinatubo aerosol extinction, mass, and surface area

Three years of lidar measurements at the northern midlatitude station of Garmisch-Partenkirchen show the evolution, northward spread and decay of the aerosol cloud which had formed in the stratosphere after the explosive eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in mid-June 1991. These lidar data are the basis for calculations of aerosol particle extinction, mass, and surface area, which are important parameters in considerations of climate response and heterogeneous chemistry effects on the stratospheric ozone layer.