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Aerosol optical properties consist one of the main uncertainty in climate modeling as aerosol interact with the solar and terrestrial radiation and act as cloud condensation nuclei. Cyprus is a part of the eastern Mediterranean and as a consequence different type of aerosols (desert dust, biomass burning) for different type of sources reach the island. Sun-photometric measurements retrieved from the ground-based AERONET station of Limassol (34 degrees 67' N, 33 degrees 04'E) can give the seasonal variance of aerosol optical properties as well the daily lidar measurements depict the vertical distribution of atmosphere in the study area. Thus the combination of two instruments could provide vulnerable knowledge concerning the optical characteristics of the particulate air pollution in the area of interest.

Transportation procedures over Limassol affect strongly the seasonal variability of the aerosol loading. For the period April 2010 - November 2012 we used AOD retrievals from the CIMEL sun-photometer and the maximum AOD values are found during the dry season (May-October). The cases where the daily AOD (500nm) exceed the mean value (0.214 +/- 0.132) were more than 250, while the maximum value reaches 1.292. For these cases we chose three different aerosol layers reaching Limassol lidar station in order to distinguish different type of particulate pollution by means of aerosol optical properties with respect to Angstrom Exponent (a), Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and vertical profiles of backscatter coefficient and particle depolarization ratio. It is clearly presented that plumes of biomass-burning and Sahara and Arabia desert dust could be separated by aerosol optical properties. Also the back-trajectories have been calculated at six layers within the atmosphere for the determination of air-masses ending up at Limassol lidar station.