High-resolution measurements of temperature and humidity fields in the atmospheric boundary layer with scanning rotational Raman lidar

摘要

The Institute of Physics and Meteorology of the University of Hohenheim (UHOH) operates a scanning rotational Raman lidar (RRL) for high-resolution temperature and water vapor measurements.The measurement performance of the RRL was improved in several aspects. The statistical error of temperature measurements was reduced by up to 70% through optimization of the filter passbands for various solar background conditions. The optimization method, based on detailed simulations, was written for one specific wavelength and was not applicable to other Raman lidar systems. Therefore the simulation results were parametrized in respect to temperature and background level and expressed in units of wavenumbers. A new interference filter transmitting rotational Raman lines near the excitation wavelength was installed, resulting in a higher transmission and eliminating possible leakage signal. A detection channel for the vibrational Raman line of water vapor was added for the retrieval of water vapor mixing ratios during day-and nighttime. More than 300 hours of temperature and more than 200 hours of water vapor measurements were performed and the acquired profiles used in several publications. Atmospheric variance and higher order moment profiles of the daytime atmospheric boundary layer were derived.