"Raman Lidar Profiling of Tropospheric Water Vapor over Kangerlussuaq, Greenland" by Ryan Reynolds Neely, III, & Jeffrey P. Thayer, J. Atmosph. Oceanic Technol.

Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 2011 ; e-View

doi: 10.1175/JTECH-D-10-05021.1

Raman Lidar Profiling of Tropospheric Water Vapor over Kangerlussuaq, Greenland

Ryan Reynolds Neely, III^*

University of Colorado Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, Boulder, CO

Jeffrey P. Thayer

University of Colorado Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, Boulder, CO

Abstract

A new measurement capability has been implemented in the Arctic Lidar Technology (AR-CLITE) system at the Sondrestrom upper atmosphere research facility near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland (67.0° N, 50.9° W), enabling estimates of atmospheric water vapor through the troposphere. A balloon campaign was simultaneously conducted to calibrate and validate the new lidar water vapor measurements. Initial results show that height-resolved profiles up to 10 km with better than 10% error are obtained with 30-minute integration and 250-m height resolution. Comparison of the lidar observations with water vapor profiles retrieved by the AIRS instrument on board the AQUA satellite agree within the error associated with each measurement. These new observations offer more routine measurements of water vapor in the Arctic to complement measurements related to the Arctic's hydrologic cycle.

^*Corresponding author: Ryan Reynolds Neely, III, ATOC, UCB 311, University of Colorado Boulder, CO 80309-0311. e-mail: Ryan.Neely@colorado.edu

http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/JTECH-D-10-05021.1