Abstract
Aiming at the detection of atmospheric water vapor mixing ratio, depolarization ratio, backscatter coefficient, extinction coefficient and cloud information, the Water vapor, Cloud and Aerosol Lidar (WACAL) is developed by the lidar group at Ocean University of China. The lidar consists of transmitter, receiver, data acquisition and auxiliary system. For the measurement of various atmospheric physical properties, three channels including Raman channel, polarization channel and infrared channel are integrated in WACAL. The integration and working principle of these channels are introduced in details. The optical setup, the housekeeping of the system and the data retrieval routines are also presented. After the completion of the construction of the lidar, the WACAL system was installed in Ocean University of China (36.165°N, 120.5°E), Qingdao for the measurement of atmosphere during 2013 and 2014. The measurement principles and some case studies corresponding to various atmospheric physical properties are provided. Finally, the result of one continuous measurement example operated on 13 June 2014 is presented. The WACAL can measure the aerosol and cloud optical properties as well as the water vapor mixing ratio. It is useful for studying the direct and indirect effects of the aerosol on the climate change.
Highlights
Water vapor has a great impact on the determination of weather and climate due to its fundamental role in the radiative energy transfer, hydrological cycle, and atmospheric chemistry processes [1]
The wavelength of 354.7 nm was used for exciting Raman signal of nitrogen and water vapor
After the coupling of fiber, the Raman signal was delivered to the spectrophotometer system and separated as Nitrogen Raman signal and Water vapor Raman signal
Summary
Water vapor has a great impact on the determination of weather and climate due to its fundamental role in the radiative energy transfer, hydrological cycle, and atmospheric chemistry processes [1]. The correspondingly large temporal and spatial variability in the aerosol characteristics are the main reasons for the high uncertainties in our quantitative understanding of the role of atmospheric aerosol in environmental, weather, and climate-related processes [2]. Ansmann et al set up a polarization Lidar to distinguish ice clouds from water clouds and to identify layers with ice crystals in mixed–phase clouds [8]. June 2012 and was deployed to a field test on July 2013. This Lidar is set up on an optical platform and housed in a weather-proof cabinet.
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