MAESTRO ATR-42 Lidar AWALI – Level 1.5

The Airborne-Weather and Aerosol Lidar (A–WALI, https://metclim-lidars.aeris-data.fr/) was operated on the SAFIRE ATR-42 during the European Mesoscale Organisation of Tropical Convection (MAESTRO, https://maestro.aeris-data.fr/) airborne campaign. The aircraft was stationed at the international airport of Sal Island (Cape Verde). The ATR-42 conducted 24 scientific flights, from 10 August to 10 September 2024. For each flight, the data acquired are calibrated and corrected to produce level 1.5 lidar data. The database contains one level 1.5 file per flight. Level 1.5 data are described below.

Observing strategy :
A–WALI is a Raman lidar measuring cloud horizontal structures, aerosol optical properties, water vapor and temperature. It was implemented in the back of the ATR-42 aircraft with a horizontal line-of-sight as already carried out during EUREC4A (Chazette at al., 2020, 2022). On a given day of operation, the ATR-42 generally performed one flight having a duration of ~3h30. The flight plan was built along 3 major blocks/phases, each of which was designed to address a particular lidar-related science need or to accommodate the requirements of the lidar and other remote sensing and in situ instruments composing the ATR-42 payload (radar, nadir pointing lidar, aerosol and cloud microphysics, turbulence), while playing a dedicated role in the overall multi-aircraft strategy implemented during the campaign.