Structure of Meridional Moisture Transport Over The Us Southern Great Plains Observed By Co-deployed Airborne Wind and Water Vapor

Abstract

Deployment of a differential absorption lidar (DIAL) water vapor system and a Doppler wind lidar on a Falcon research aircraft provided direct, high spatial resolution profiles of northerly water vapor transport over the southern Great Plains during the IHOP field experiment. The observations, with horizontal resolution of 1.5 km and vertical resolution of 150 m, showed small scale structure in water vapor transport not observed by dropsondes. Two maxima in the transport separated by approximately 70 km were observed in the analyzed lidar data; northerly fluxes of moisture exceeded 250 (g m)/(kg s2) in the easternmost lobe. The measurements demonstrated the feasibility of combining lidar measurements from individual DIAL and Doppler instruments to estimate horizontal moisture flux and, potentially, moisture convergence across extended regions. A version of this technique, utilizing profiles from an airborne ozone lidar and interpolated measurements from multiple surface-based wind profilers, was recently employed to characterize and compare ozone fluxes downwind of the Dallas and Houston urban areas.