Abstract
A Raman Lidar (RL) system is developed to measure the water vapor mixing ratio (WVMR) and aerosol optical property in Wuhan with high temporal-spatial resolution during rainless nights. The principle of the self-developed lidar system and data processing method are discussed. WVMR profiles of a representative case retrieved by RL, Radiosonde (RS), and microwave radiometer (MR) are in good agreement. The relationship of WVMR and aerosol optical depth (AOD) indicates that water vapor dramatically reduces with the decline of the AOD. Moreover, the mean relative difference of mean WVMRs at low-troposphere obtained by RL and RS (MR) is about 5.17% (9.47%) during the analyzed year. The agreement certifies that the self-developed RL system can stably provide accurate and high temporal-spatial resolution data for the fundamental physical studies on water vapor. Furthermore, the maximum AOD from 0.5 km to 3 km is 0.41 at night in spring, which indicates that the air quality in Wuhan is heavily influenced by aerosols that are transported by air mass from the north during this time. Moreover, abundant rainfall led to relatively low AOD in summer (0.22), which demonstrates that water vapor is crucial for air purification.
Highlights
Atmospheric water vapor and aerosol play crucial roles in the material and hydrological cycles of the Earth’s atmosphere, especially in the low-troposphere
The aim of this paper is to report the accuracy of the newly developed Raman Lidar (RL) for water vapor mixing ratio (WVMR) and the analysis of the long-term variation of water vapor and aerosols during rainless nights
The reason is that the air quality in Wuhan is heavily influenced by the aerosols that are transported by air mass from the north in spring
Summary
Atmospheric water vapor and aerosol play crucial roles in the material and hydrological cycles of the Earth’s atmosphere, especially in the low-troposphere. Aerosol is changing rapidly and impacts people’s health and living environment directly [1,2]. It affects the atmospheric physical processes, weather, and climate change [3,4]. Water vapor can be condensed into atmospheric particulate matter settlement, which is an important condition for the formation of clouds [7,8,9]. Adequate amounts of water vapor are necessary for abundant rainfall, which is beneficial to air quality and plays a major role in regulating the climate [10]. Accurate measurements of water vapor and aerosol optical properties are crucial to the research on climatic variation, cloud formation, air quality forecasting, and so on [11]
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