During the week 29 October–4 November 1988, a Ground-based Atmospheric Profiling Experiment (GAPEX) was conducted at Denver Stapleton International Airport. The objective of GAPEX was to acquire and analyze atomspheric-temperature and moisture-profile data from state-of-the-art remote sensors. The sensors included a six-spectral-channel, passive Microwave Profiler (MWP), a passive, infrared High-Resolution Interferometer Sounder (HIS) that provides more than 1500 spectral channels, and an active Radio Acoustic Sounding System (RASS). A Cross-Chain Loran Atmospheric Sounding System (CLASS) was used to provide research-quality in situ thermodynamic observations to verify the accuracy and resolution characteristics of each of the three remote sensors. The first results of the project are presented here to inform the meteorological community of the progress achieved during the GAPEX field phase. These results also serve to demonstrate the excellent prospects for an accurate, continuous thermodynamic profiling system to complement NOAA's forthcoming operational wind profiler.
* Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS), NOAA, NASA, and the University of Wisconsin—Madison
†Wave Propagation Laboratory, (WPL), Environmental Research Laboratories (ERL), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, CO
** Atmospheric Technology Division (ATD), National Center for Atmospheric Research (sponsored by the National Science Foundation), Boulder, CO
††Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences (CIRES), NOAA and the University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
