Raman Lidar Profiles Best Estimate Value-Added Product Technical Report

摘要

The ARM Raman lidars are semi-autonomous ground-based systems that transmit at a wavelength of 355 nm with 300 mJ, (approx)5 ns pulses, and a pulse repetition frequency of 30Hz. Signals from the various detection channels are processed to produce time- and height-resolved estimates of several geophysical quantities, such as water vapor mixing ratio, relative humidity, aerosol scattering ratio, backscatter, optical depth, extinction, and depolarization ratio. Data processing is currently handled by a suite of six value-added product (VAP) processes. Collectively, these processes are known as the Raman Lidar Profiles VAP (RLPROF). The top-level best-estimate (BE) VAP process was introduced in order to bring together the most relevant information from the intermediate-level VAPs. As such, the BE process represents the final stage in data processing for the Raman lidar. Its principal function is to extract the primary variables from each of the intermediate-level VAPs, perform additional quality control, and combine all of this information into a single output file for the end-user. The focus of this document is to describe the processing performed by the BE VAP process.