Abstract

The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo on June 15 of 1991 injected enormous amounts of volcanic materials into the stratosphere. The ejecta of 20-30 megatons was expected to influence climate through radiative process by scattering and absorbing the solar and the terrestrial radiation, and ozone chemistry through reaction on the surface of sulfuric acid aerosols. For the quantification of these effects, we started lidar observations at Wakkanai Radio Observatory (45.°4N, 141.°7E) of Communications Research Laboratory. Wakkanai is the most northern site in a lidar observation network organized across Japan after the eruption of Pinatubo.

© 1995 IEEE