Combination of the Equatorial Atmosphere Radar – Radio Acoustic Sounding System (EAR-RASS) in Determining a Fine Structure of Total Precipitable Water (TPW) over Kototabang, West Sumatera, Indonesia

Abstract

This study is mainly concerned an application the combined of the Equatorial Atmosphere Radar (EAR) and Radio Acoustic Sounding System (RASS) in determining a fine structure of Total Precipitable Water (TPW) in the lower troposphere at Kototabang, West Sumatera (0.20°S; 100.32°E) during the CPEA I Campaign started from April 10 to May 9, 2004. It looks possible, since EAR-RASS is designed specially to detect the wind at three dimensional direction and virtual temperature with good time and spatial height resolution. By applying the Weisner technique (1970), we found a fine structure of TPW vertically during the above period. While, by applying the Cross-Correlation Function (CCF), we found an a goog agreement between TPW and Optical Rain Gauge (ORG). In the same time, we analyzed the Boundary Layer Radar (BLR) to investigate the updraft and downdraft air mass activities from surface up to 5 km. We found the consistency of BLR, RASS and radiometer data when we investigated the vertical profile of TPW. Futhermore, we found the time variation of TPW, especially on April 24 and May 5, 2005 are about 0.43 and 0.35, respectively. Detailed results of this study are discussed in this paper.