We report on a recently designed and developed, innovative lidar system for aerosols remote sensing, complying with the demands for data quality and system characteristics established in ACTRIS (Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure). The first prototype of this lidar system dubbed ASSO (Lidar for Aerosol with Scanning System for 3D Observations), is currently operative as part of the mobile unit for atmospheric remote sensing of the Naples ACTRIS National Facility (NF). ASSO is the first compact and transportable two wavelengths elastic/Raman lidar system, equipped with scanning and polarization discrimination capabilities, specially designed for atmospheric investigations over a very large range of altitudes (from about 0.2 km up to 25 km), combining compactness, accuracy, autonomy in remote use and easiness of operation. ASSO uses an acquisition board specifically developed for transportable systems in a compact configuration that was tested at the CARS-CNR CIAO ACTRIS calibration center demonstrating high performance in terms of signal-to-noise ratio in both analog and photon-counting regimes. ACTRIS calibration procedures for high-power aerosol lidars were carried out for the ASSO system assessing the system performance according to the standard quality assurance protocols for ACTRIS NF operation.In this work, we report a description of the ASSO system, the acquisition board and the system calibration testing as well as the results of first lidar measurements demonstrating its ability to characterize aerosol optical properties in the troposphere as well as to probe the lower stratosphere.

We report on a recently designed and developed cutting-edge lidar system for aerosol remote sensing, complying with the demands for data quality and system characteristics established in ACTRIS (Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure). The first prototype of this lidar system is currently operative at the Naples ACTRIS National Facility (NF). It is the first compact and transportable two-wavelength elastic/Raman lidar system, equipped with scanning and polarization discrimination capabilities, specially designed for atmospheric investigations from a range of about 0.2 km up to 25 km, combining compactness, accuracy, autonomy in remote use, and ease of operation. The system uses an acquisition board specifically developed for transportable systems in a compact configuration that was tested at the CARS-CNR CIAO ACTRIS calibration center, demonstrating high performance in terms of the signal-to-noise ratio. ACTRIS calibration procedures for high-power aerosol lidars were carried out to assess the system performance according to the standard quality assurance protocols for ACTRIS NF operation. In this work, we report a description of the system, the calibration testing, and the results of the first measurements, demonstrating its ability to characterize aerosol optical properties in the troposphere and the lower stratosphere.