The Small Mobile Ozone Lidar (SMOL): instrument description and first results

Abstract. Ozone profile measurements at high temporal and vertical resolution are needed to better understand physical processes driving tropospheric ozone variability and to validate the tropospheric ozone measurements from spaceborne missions such as TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring Pollution). As part of the Tropospheric Ozone Lidar Network (TOLNet) efforts allocated to provide such measurements, and leveraging on the experience of more than 20 years of ozone lidar measurements at Table Mountain Facility, the JPL lidar group developed the SMOL (Small Mobile Ozone Lidar), an affordable differential absorption lidar (DIAL) system covering all altitudes from 200 m to 10 km. a.g.l. The transmitter is based on a quadrupled Nd:YAG laser which is further converted into a 289/299 nm wavelength pair using Raman shifting cells, and the receiver consists of three ozone DIAL pairs of 266/289 and 289/299 nm. Two units were deployed in the Los Angeles basin area during the Synergistic TEMPO Air Quality Science (STAQS) and Atmospheric Emissions and Reactions Observed from Megacities to Marine Areas (AEROMMA) campaigns in summer 2023. The comparison with airborne in-situ and lidar measurements show very good agreement, with systematic differences below 10 % throughout most of the measurement range. An additional comparison with nearby surface ozone measuring instruments indicates unbiased measurements by the SMOL lidars down to 200 m above ground level.