Measurements of Humidity In The Atmosphere and Validation Experiments (mohave)-2009: Operations and Results Overview

Abstract

The MOHAVE 2009 campaign took place at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Table Mountain Facility (California) in October 2009. The campaign hosted a large number of instruments and techniques which allowed intensive measurements of water vapor mixing ratio between the ground and the mesopause, as well as Total Precipitable Water (TPW). Six ground-based lidars from three different Research groups provided over 350 hours of water vapor, ozone, and temperature measurements. Over 50 balloons were launched with RS92 PTU sondes onboard. Twenty of them included Frost-point Hygrometers (FPH), allowing thorough validation of the lidar measurements. The water vapor profiles obtained from the JPL lidar showed no systematic bias with the FPH up to 20 km. One-hour time integration allowed the JPL profiles to reach 14-15 km, and 50-hour averages allowed the profiles to reach 20 km with approximate 20% precision. Outstanding water vapor-ozone correlations were observed, and revealed a major stratospheric intrusion on October 20. Two GPS receivers, two microwave radiometers, and two Fourier Transform Spectrometers provided near-continuous measurements of TPW. Excellent agreement between all instruments was found, suggesting that these techniques can become important complements to the radiosonde for routine lidar calibration. 1. INTRODUCTION Water vapor plays a fundamental role in the chemistry, dynamics, and radiation budget of the Earth atmosphere [1]. However, its distribution, climatology, and the short and long-term variability of its concentration in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere are not well enough known. To contribute to addressing these issues and to provide much needed satellite validation measurements, the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) has included water vapor Raman lidar in its suite of high quality long-term monitoring instruments. As part of this implementation, several intercomparison and validation campaigns have taken place at the NDACC site of Table Mountain Facility (TMF, 34.4N, 117.7W, elev. 2285 m), run by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The MOHAVE 2009 campaign was the third campaign of this type deployed at TMF. Unlike the first two campaigns (MOHAVE in 2006 and MOHAVE-2 in 2007) which were specifically dedicated to the validation of newly developed water vapor Raman lidars, the 2009 campaign gathered an extended number of instruments and techniques, allowing the coverage of the entire atmosphere from the ground to the mesopause. An overview of the campaign operations, and selected preliminary results having a direct link to the lidar measurements are presented in this extended abstract