Water vapour mixing ratio profiles over Hornsund, Arctic. Intercomparison of lidar and AIRS results

Abstract

Since October 2009, a ground-based Raman lidar system has been deployed to perform a regular, night-time, vertical sounding of a water vapour content in the lower and middle troposphere above Polish Polar Station at Hornsund (77.00°N, 15.55°E, 10 m a.s.l.) in the Arctic. The water vapour mixing ratio profiles were obtained for the atmosphere up to 6 km altitude, based on analysis of inelastic Raman backscattering signals from nitrogen molecules (at 387 nm) and water vapour particles (at 407 nm), calibrated with the data from a local Vaisala’s automatic meteorological station. The results obtained for winter seasons in the years 2009–2012 are in a good general agreement with the results obtained from the atmospheric infrared sounder (AIRS) on the Aqua satellite.