To achieve the D-TECT goals we combined remote sensing observations, airborne in-situ data and atmospheric modeling. A novel polarization lidar system (WALL-E) was developed in collaboration with Raymetrics S.A. to monitor dust particle orientation as well as their optical and microphysical properties in ambient conditions (Figure 1). WALL-E lidar was successfully tested in the campaign in Cyprus (November 2019) and participated in the scientific campaign ESA-ASKOS in Cabo Verde (
https://askos.space.noa.gr/(se abrirá en una nueva ventana)) on June/Septemeber 2022.
Moreover, the PANhellenic GEophysical observatory of Antikythera (PANGEA) was created by the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) to serve the continuous observational needs of D-TECT. The island of Antikythera is considered to be an ideal place to collect climatic and geophysical data due to minimal pollution, little anthropogenic activity and the intersection of air masses from the Sahara desert, the volcano Etna and important cities of the Mediterranean. The prospect of a supersite on this remote island captured the interest of the European Investment Bank which has invested 20 million euros in the Observatory.
The large scale observational campaign of D-TECT was combined with the observational campaign “ASKOS”, organized by the European Space Agency (ESA). ASKOS took place in two phases (Phase I: July/September 2021; Phase II: June/September 2022) at Cabo Verde, focusing on Aeolus satellite aerosol product validation under dusty conditions. In order to monitor the columnar electrical properties of dust layers several prototype atmospheric electricity sensors were developed for D-TECT, and they were mounted on radiosonde balloons and UAV platforms.
Another important task of D-TECT was the development of a scattering database for large oriented dust particles with irregular shapes. For this reason, Dr. Amiridis was awarded a total of 45 Million CPU-core-hours by the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) and Greek Research & Technology Network (GRNET) at MareNostrum HPC (at Barcelona Supercomputing Center) and National HPC facility ARIS, respectively.
Despite the vast number of dust studies regarding dust transport, deposition fluxes, effects on radiation and clouds etc., there is still significant uncertainty on the sedimentation processes of dust. Since all atmospheric models treat dust particles as perfect spheres, new conceptual theoretical schemes were developed incorporating shape-dependent sedimentation and the effects of the electrically induced orientation of prolate dust particles in atmospheric models.
