Intercomparison of water vapor data measured with lidar during IHOP_2002, Part 1: Airborne to ground-based lidar systems and comparisons with chilled-mirror hygrometer radiosondes

The water vapor data measured with airborne and ground-based lidar systems during the International H₂O Project (IHOP_2002), which took place in the Southern Great Plains during 13 May-25 June 2002 were investigated. So far, the data collected during IHOP_2002 provide the largest set of state-of-the-art water vapor lidar data measured in a field campaign. In this first of two companion papers, intercomparisons between the scanning Raman lidar (SRL) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and two airborne systems are discussed. There are 9 intercomparisons possible between SRL and the differential absorption lidar (DIAL) of Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), while there are 10 intercomparisons between SRL and the Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment (LASE) of the NASA Langley Research Center. Mean biases of (-0.30 ± 0.25) g kg⁻¹ or -4.3% ± 3.2% for SRL compared to DLR DIAL (DLR DIAL drier) and (0.16 ± 0.31) g kg⁻¹ or 5.3% ± 5.1% for SRL compared to LASE (LASE wetter) in the height range of 1.3-3.8 km above sea level (450-2950 m above ground level at the SRL site) were found. Putting equal weight on the data reliability of the three instruments, these results yield relative bias values of -4.6%, -0.4%, and +5.0% for DLR DIAL, SRL, and LASE, respectively. Furthermore, measurements of the Snow White (SW) chilled-mirror hygrometer radiosonde were compared with lidar data. For the four comparisons possible between SW radiosondes and SRL, an overall bias of (-0.27 ± 0.30) g kg⁻¹ or -3.2% ± 4.5% of SW compared to SRL (SW drier) again for 1.3-3.8 km above sea level was found. Because it is a challenging effort to reach an accuracy of humidity measurements down to the 5% level, the overall results are very satisfactory and confirm the high and stable performance of the instruments and the low noise errors of each profile.

To Access Resource:

Questions? Email Resource Support Contact:

  • opensky@ucar.edu
    UCAR/NCAR - Library

Resource Type publication
Temporal Range Begin N/A
Temporal Range End N/A
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat N/A
Bounding Box South Lat N/A
Bounding Box West Long N/A
Bounding Box East Long N/A
Spatial Representation N/A
Spatial Resolution N/A
Related Links N/A
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format PDF
Standardized Resource Format PDF
Asset Size N/A
Legal Constraints

Copyright 2007 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work.
Access Constraints None
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name N/A
Resource Support Email opensky@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library
Distributor N/A
Metadata Contact Name N/A
Metadata Contact Email opensky@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library

Author Behrendt, A.
Wufmeyer, V.
Bauer, H.
Schaberl, T.
Di Girolamo, P.
Summa, D.
Kiemle, C.
Ehret, G.
Demoz, B.
Whiteman, D.
Demoz, B.
Browell, E.
Ismail, S.
Ferrare, R.
Kooi, S.
Wang, Junhong
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2007-01-01T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
Alternate Identifier N/A
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
Progress N/A
Metadata Date 2025-07-17T17:03:37.853531
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:6732
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Behrendt, A., Wufmeyer, V., Bauer, H., Schaberl, T., Di Girolamo, P., Summa, D., Kiemle, C., Ehret, G., Demoz, B., Whiteman, D., Demoz, B., Browell, E., Ismail, S., Ferrare, R., Kooi, S., Wang, Junhong. (2007). Intercomparison of water vapor data measured with lidar during IHOP_2002, Part 1: Airborne to ground-based lidar systems and comparisons with chilled-mirror hygrometer radiosondes. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7k074hf. Accessed 01 August 2025.

Harvest Source