https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201611926006
Water Vapor Measurements by Mobile Raman Lidar Over The Mediterranean Sea in the Framework of HyMex: Application to Multi-Platform Validation of Moisture Profiles
1 IPSL/LSCE, UMR 8212 CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
2 IPSL/LATMOS, UMR 8190 CNRS-UVSQ, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC (Paris 06), 75005 Paris
3 CNRM/GAME, UMR 3589 Météo-France-CNRS, 31057 Toulouse Cedex
4 IGN/LAREG, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Université Paris Diderot (Paris 07), 75013 Paris
Published online: 7 June 2016
The Water Aerosol Lidar (WALI) system, deployed for 14 weeks during 2012 & 2013 on the island of Menorca, provided the Hydrological cycle in the Mediterranean eXperiment (HyMeX) with an opportunity to perform a multi-platform comparison on moisture retrievals at the timescales relevant for extreme precipitation events in the West Mediterranean basin. After calibration, the WALI lidar yields nighttime profiles of water vapor with ~7% accuracy from the ground up to 7 km, and daytime coverage of the lower layers, alongside common aerosol retrievals. It is used to characterize the water vapor profile product given by the IASI instrument on-board MetOp-B, and the fields simulated by the Météo-France AROME-WMED model and the open-source WRF model. IASI is found to be reliable above 1 km altitude, and the two models obtain similar high scores in the middle troposphere; WRF beneficiates from a more accurate modelling of the planetary boundary layer.
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2016
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
