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Johannes Bühl
,
Ronny Engelmann
, and
Albert Ansmann

Abstract

A chirped laser pulse can introduce artifacts into datasets of coherent Doppler wind lidars. At close vicinity of strong signal peaks undesired artificial velocities can be measured and continuous signals can be shifted by a constant factor. It is shown how to remove these artifacts and how to retrieve accurate velocity estimations from both clouds and the planetary boundary layer. Therefore, a two-dimensional deconvolution technique is applied to the wind lidar datasets in order to correct the chirp effect in the range and frequency space. The chirp correction for a 1-h measurement of vertical velocities in the atmosphere is presented. The method is applied to the averaged Doppler spectra. Therefore, no access to the raw heterodyne signal is necessary. The complexity of the data acquisition software and the amount of data to be stored is hereby significantly reduced. Simulations suggest that the remaining velocity error resulting from the laser pulse chirp is smaller than 0.02 m s−1 and chirp-induced artifacts are removed reliably. The method also increases the signal resolution in the range and frequency dimension and can be applied for this intent even if there is no chirp.

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Ronny Engelmann
,
Ulla Wandinger
,
Albert Ansmann
,
Detlef Müller
,
Egidijus Žeromskis
,
Dietrich Althausen
, and
Birgit Wehner

Abstract

The vertical aerosol transport in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) is investigated with lidars. Profiles of the vertical wind velocity are measured with a 2-μm Doppler wind lidar. Aerosol parameters are derived from observations with an aerosol Raman lidar. Both instruments were operated next to each other at the Institute for Tropospheric Research (IfT) in Leipzig, Germany. The eddy correlation technique is applied to calculate turbulent particle mass fluxes on the basis of aerosol backscatter and vertical wind data obtained with a resolution of 75 m and 5 s throughout the PBL. A conversion of particle backscatter to particle mass is performed by applying the IfT inversion scheme to three-wavelength Raman lidar observations. The method, so far, is restricted to stationary and dry atmospheric conditions under which hygroscopic particle growth can be neglected. In a case study, particle mass fluxes of 0.5–2.5 μg m−2 s−1 were found in the upper part of a convective PBL on 12 September 2006.

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Dietrich Althausen
,
Ronny Engelmann
,
Holger Baars
,
Birgit Heese
,
Albert Ansmann
,
Detlef Müller
, and
Mika Komppula

Abstract

Two versions of the portable aerosol Raman lidar system (Polly) are presented. First, the two-channel prototype is depicted. It has been developed for the independent and simultaneous determination of particle backscatter and extinction coefficient profiles at 532 nm. Second, the 3 + 2 Raman lidar PollyXT (3 + 2: three backscatter and two extinction coefficients), the second generation of Polly, is described. The extended capabilities of PollyXT are due to the simultaneous emission of light with three wavelengths, more laser power, a larger main receiver mirror, and seven receiver channels. These systems are completely remotely controlled and all measurements are performed automatically. The collected data are transferred to a home server via the Internet and are displayed on a Web page. This paper describes the details of the optical setup, the housekeeping of the systems, and the used data retrieval routines. A measurement example taken close to Manaus, Brazil, on 15 August 2008 shows the capabilities of PollyXT.

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Matthias Grzeschik
,
Hans-Stefan Bauer
,
Volker Wulfmeyer
,
Dirk Engelbart
,
Ulla Wandinger
,
Ina Mattis
,
Dietrich Althausen
,
Ronny Engelmann
,
Matthias Tesche
, and
Andrea Riede

Abstract

The impact of water vapor observations on mesoscale initial fields provided by a triangle of Raman lidar systems covering an area of about 200 km × 200 km is investigated. A test case during the Lindenberg Campaign for Assessment of Humidity and Cloud Profiling Systems and its Impact on High-Resolution Modeling (LAUNCH-2005) was chosen. Evaluation of initial water vapor fields derived from ECMWF analysis revealed that in the model the highly variable vertical structure of water vapor profiles was not recovered and vertical gradients were smoothed out. Using a 3-h data assimilation window and a resolution of 10–30 min, continuous water vapor data from these observations were assimilated in the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM5) by means of a four-dimensional variational data analysis (4DVAR). A strong correction of the vertical structure and the absolute values of the initial water vapor field of the order of 1 g kg−1 was found. This occurred mainly upstream of the lidar systems within an area, which was comparable with the domain covered by the lidar systems. The correction of the water vapor field was validated using independent global positioning system (GPS) sensors. Much better agreement to GPS zenith wet delay was achieved with the initial water vapor field after 4DVAR. The impact region was transported with the mean wind and was still visible after 4 h of free forecast time.

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Christian Herold
,
Dietrich Althausen
,
Detlef Müller
,
Matthias Tesche
,
Patric Seifert
,
Ronny Engelmann
,
Cyrille Flamant
,
Rohini Bhawar
, and
Paolo Di Girolamo

Abstract

Water vapor measurements with the multiwavelength Raman lidar Backscatter Extinction Lidar-Ratio Temperature Humidity Profiling Apparatus (BERTHA) were performed during the Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study (COPS) in the Black Forest, Germany, from June to August 2007. For quality assurance, profiles of the water vapor mixing ratio measured with BERTHA are compared to simultaneous measurements of a radiosonde and an airborne differential absorption lidar (DIAL) on 31 July 2007. The differences from the radiosonde observations are found to be on average 1.5% and 2.5% in the residual layer and in the free troposphere, respectively. During the two overflights at 1937 and 2018 UTC, the differences from the DIAL results are −2.2% and −3.7% in the residual layer and 2.1% and −2.6% in the free troposphere. After this performance check, short-range forecasts from the German Meteorological Service’s (Deutscher Wetterdienst, DWD) version of the Consortium for Small-Scale Modeling (COSMO-DE) model are compared to the BERTHA measurements for two case studies. Generally, it is found that water vapor mixing ratios from short-range forecasts are on average 7.9% drier than the values measured in the residual layer. In the free troposphere, modeled values are 9.7% drier than the measurements.

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