CALIPSO and sunphotometer measurements of Saharan dust events over Camagüey

Large volumes of Saharan dust particles are transported each year from northern Africa to the Americas, through Atlantic Ocean, reaching during the northern hemisphere summer the Wider Caribbean and Cuba in particular. Since the installation in October 2008 of a sun photometer type CIMEL CE-318, operated by Atmospheric Optics Group of Camagüey, numerous Saharan dust events have been registered. The most significant events for this AERONET measurement site were registered during July 2009. The highest AOD value with a magnitude greater than 0.6 was reported on July 6. The longest event for this period occurred between 15 and 20 July, with maximum AOD values above of 0.6. Measurement performed with lidar aboard CALIPSO satellite, for coincident measurement on July 19, distant 22.6 km to west of sun photometer site, provide information about the space-temporal distribution of this event. The AOD registered values of 0.35 and 0.32 for both, CALIPSO and MODIS, respectively, have equal magnitude than CIMEL measurement for the same day. The intercomparison between instruments, with different measurement principles, has corroborated its complementarity. CALIPSO, MODIS and AERONET data available at global scale are used, in conjunction with transport models and backtrajectories, for investigating the Saharan dust plume dispersion.