Raman Lidar Measurements during the International H2O Project. Part II: Case Studies

The NASA GSFC Scanning Raman Lidar (SRL) participated in the International H2O Project (IHOP) that occurred in May and June 2002 in the midwestern part of the United States. The SRL system configuration and methods of data analysis were described in Part I of this paper. In this second part, compari...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of atmospheric and oceanic technology 2006-02, Vol.23 (2), p.170-183
Main Authors: Whiteman, D N, Demoz, B, Di Girolamo, P, Comer, J, Veselovskii, I, Evans, K, Wang, Z, Sabatino, D, Schwemmer, G, Gentry, B, Lin, R, Behrendt, A, Wulfmeyer, V, Browell, E, Ferrare, R, Ismail, S, Wang, J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Airborne sensing
Boundary layers
Case studies
Clouds
Lidar
Meteorology
Optical analysis
Precipitation
Water
Water content
Water depth
Water vapor
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Summary:The NASA GSFC Scanning Raman Lidar (SRL) participated in the International H2O Project (IHOP) that occurred in May and June 2002 in the midwestern part of the United States. The SRL system configuration and methods of data analysis were described in Part I of this paper. In this second part, comparisons of SRL water vapor measurements and those of Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment (LASE) airborne water vapor lidar and chilled-mirror radiosonde are performed. Two case studies are then presented: one for daytime and one for nighttime. The daytime case study is of a convectively driven boundary layer event and is used to characterize the daytime SRL water vapor random error characteristics. The nighttime case study is of a thunderstorm-generated cirrus cloud case that is studied in its meteorological context. Upper-tropospheric humidification due to precipitation from the cirrus cloud is quantified as is the cirrus cloud optical depth, extinction-to-backscatter ratio, ice water content, cirrus particle size, and both particle and volume depolarization ratios. A stability and back-trajectory analysis is performed to study the origin of wave activity in one of the cloud layers. These unprecedented cirrus cloud measurements are being used in a cirrus cloud modeling study.
ISSN:0739-0572
1520-0426
DOI:10.1175/JTECH1839.1