Water vapour profiling

A Raman Lidar model LR-312-UVI-400 has been used by the Andalusia Centre for Environmental Studies (CEAMA) for profiling aerosols and water vapour.

A Raman Lidar model LR-312-UVI-400 has been used by the Andalusia Centre for Environmental Studies (CEAMA) for profiling aerosols and water vapour.  

For example during a year long campaign (September 2005 to August 2006) regular night-time water vapour Raman Lidar measurements have been taken to compare with radio-sounding measurements of precipitable water. In addition the seasonal variation of water vapour mixing ratio has been analyzed. This Raman Lidar emits the first, second and third harmonic of a Nd:YAG Laser (355, 532, 1064nm).

For the study a pulse repetition rate of 10 Hz was used.   For detecting the water vapour profiles the Raman shifted backscatter at 387nm (nitrogen) and 408nm (Water vapour) were used.   Below are some examples of measurement data from that system.

Comparison of water vapour mixing ratio profile (g/kg) from radio-sounding and calibrated Lidar sounding for some days during the field campaign at El Arenosillo.