Lidar-based Atmospheric Measurement at Pianosa (LAMP) dataset

This dataset contains processed profiles acquired by the MARCO (Micro-pulse Atmospheric Optical Radar for Climate and Weather Observations) Raman lidar during the LAMP (Lidar-based Atmospheric Measurement at Pianosa) field campaign. MARCO is a compact, transportable Raman lidar developed by the Lidar Group of the University of Basilicata (Di Girolamo et al., 2023) and operated since 2025-01-21 at the BRP-CNR (Base Ricerca Pianosa of the Italian National Research Council) on Pianosa Island (Tuscan Archipelago, Italy; 42.5849° N, 10.0971° E, 17 m a.s.l.). The LAMP campaign is organised by the Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR-CNR) and aims to characterise marine aerosols and atmospheric water vapour in a region with minimal local anthropogenic influence. Pianosa was chosen for its small size, limited human activity and lack of complex topography; these conditions are ideal for measurements of background marine aerosol, of its interaction with continental aerosols under different circulation scenarios, and for monitoring atmospheric water vapour in the Central Mediterranean. Release notes This first release (v1.0) covers 2025-01-21 to 2025-03-07, with a temporal resolution of 30 minutes and a vertical resolution of 15 m.Subsequent versions of the dataset will extend the temporal coverage. Variables The dataset is distributed as a single NetCDF-4. The file contains two processing levels. Coordinates: - time — profile start time, UTC- range — range above the lidar [m]- altitude — height above mean sea level [m] Level-1 products, Signal / background / RCS for every processed channel (355 nm, 387 nm, 407 nm; analog and photon counting): - signal_{…} — background-subtracted lidar signal- background_{…} — background estimate per profile- rcs_{…} — range-corrected signal (signal × R²) Level-2 products: - aerosol_backscatter_355 — aerosol particulate backscatter coefficient at 354.7 nm [m⁻¹ sr⁻¹]- water_vapour_mixing_ratio — water-vapour mixing ratio [g kg⁻¹]- wv_calibration_constant — water-vapour calibration constant [g kg⁻¹] Methods The MARCO raw acquisitions (30-minute means) are preprocessed by subtracting a per-profile background estimated over dedicated raw-bin windows (pre-trigger bins for the 355 nm and 387 nm channels, tail of the profile for the 407 nm analog channel). The range-corrected signal is obtained as RCS = (signal − background) · R². The aerosolparticulate backscatter at 354.7 nm is retrieved using the Raman inversion of Ansmann et al. (1992) with the 386.7 nm N₂ Raman channel as a reference. The water-vapour mixing ratio is derived from the 407 nm H₂O / 387 nm N₂ Raman ratio and corrected for the differential molecular (Rayleigh) two-way transmission. The calibration constant is determined over cloud-screened time windows with a stable calibration factor, and then applied to the full period covered by this time windows.