Abstract
Water vapor, though a minor constituent of Earth’s atmosphere, plays a major role in the atmospheric radiation budget and the global water cycle. Atmospheric water vapor concentrations are highly variable due to the complex interplay between their sources (evaporation) and sinks (condensation and precipitation) in combination with transport and mixing. They strongly decrease with temperature and thus with altitude. Accurate measurement of water vapor is essential for better understanding its transport and cloud formation in the atmosphere and their impact on both weather and climate. To this end the institute develops and deploys lidars and in situ hygrometers onboard aircraft.
Keywords
- Water Vapor
- Convective Boundary Layer
- Numerical Weather Prediction
- Atmospheric Water Vapor
- Water Vapor Transport
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Behrendt, A., Wulfmeyer, V., Kiemle, C., Ehret, G., Flamant, C., Schaberl, T., Bauer, H.-S., Kooi, S., Ismail, S., Ferrare, R., et al.: Intercomparison of water vapor data measured with Lidar during IHOP_2002. Part II: Airborne-to-airborne systems. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol. 24, 22–39 (2007)
Busen, R., Buck, A.L.: A high-performance hygrometer for aircraft use: description, installation, and flight data. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol. 12, 73–84 (1995)
Chaboureau, J.-P., Cammas, J.-P., Duron, J., Mascart, P.J., Sitnikov, N.M., Voessing, H.-J.: A numerical study of tropical cross-tropopause transport by convective overshoots. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 7, 1731–1740 (2007)
Couvreux, F., Guichard, F., Redelsperger, J.L., Kiemle, C., Masson, V., Lafore, J.P., Flamant, C.: Water vapour variability within a convective boundary layer assessed by Large Eddy simulations and IHOP_2002 observations. Quart. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 131, 2665–2693 (2006)
Davis, K.J., Lenschow, D.H., Oncley, S.P., Kiemle, C., Ehret, G., Giez, A., Mann, J.: Role of entrainment in surface-atmosphere interactions over the boreal forest. BOREAS special issue. J. Geophys. Res. 102(D24), 29219–29230 (1997)
Davis, K.J., Gamage, N., Hagelberg, C., Kiemle, C., Lenschow, D.H., Sullivan, P.P.: An objective method for deriving atmospheric structure from airborne lidar observations. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol. 17, 1455–1468 (2000)
Ehret, G., Kiemle, C., Renger, W., Simmet, G.: Airborne remote sensing of tropospheric water vapor with a near-infrared differential absorption lidar system. Appl. Optics 32, 4534–4551 (1993). doi:10.1364/AO.32.004534
Ehret, G., Hoinka, K.P., Stein, J., Fix, A., Kiemle, C., Poberaj, G.: Low stratospheric water vapor measured by an airborne DIAL. J. Geophys. Res. 104(D24), 31351–31359 (1999)
Flentje, H., Dörnbrack, A., Ehret, G., Fix, A., Kiemle, C., Poberaj, G., Wirth, M.: Water vapour heterogeneity related to tropopause folds over the North Atlantic revealed by airborne water vapour differential absorption lidar. J. Geophys. Res. 110, D03115 (2005). doi:10.1029/2004JD004957
Fueglistaler, S., Dessler,A.E., Dunkerton, T.J., Folkins, I., Fu, Q., Mote,P.W.: Tropical tropopause layer. Rev. Geophys. 47, RG1004 (2009). doi:10.1029/2008RG000267
Gettelman, A., Hoor, P., Pan, L.L., Randel, W.J., Hegglin, M.I., Birner, T.: The extratropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Rev. Geophys. 49, RG3003 (2011). doi:10.1029/2011RG000355
Gierens, K., Schumann, U., Helten, M., Smit, H., Wang, P.H.: Ice-supersaturated regions and sub visible cirrus in the northern midlatitude upper troposphere. J. Geophys. Res. 105, 22743–22754 (2000)
Giez, A., Ehret, G., Schwiesow, R.L., Davis, K.J., Lenschow, D.H.: Water vapor flux measurements from groundbased vertically pointed water vapor differential absorption and Doppler lidars. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol. 16, 237–250 (1999)
Grund, C.J., Banta, M., George, J., Howell, J., Post, M., Richter, R., Weickmann, A.: High resolution Doppler lidar for boundary layer research. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol. 18, 376–393 (2001)
Harnisch, F., Weissmann, M., Cardinali, C., Wirth, M.: Experimental assimilation of DIAL water vapour observations in the ECMWF global model. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 137, 1532–1546 (2011)
Hauf, T., Schulte, P., Alheit, R., Schlager, H.: Rapid vertical trace gas transport by an isolated midlatitude thunderstorm. J. Geophys. Res. 100(D11), 22957–22970 (1995). doi:10.1029/95JD02324
Keil, C., Röpnack, A., Craig, G.C., Schumann, U.: Sensitivity of quantitative precipitation forecast to height dependent changes in humidity. Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, L09812 (2008). doi:10.1029/2008GL033657
Kiemle, C., Kästner, M., Ehret, G.: The convective boundary layer structure from lidar and radiosonde measurements during the EFEDA′91 campaign. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol. 12, 771–782 (1995)
Kiemle, C., Ehret, G., Giez, A., Davis, K.J., Lenschow, D.H., Oncley, S.P.: Estimation of boundary-layer humidity fluxes and statistics from airborne differential absorption lidar (DIAL). BOREAS special issue. J. Geophys. Res. 102(D24), 29189–29203 (1997)
Kiemle, C., Brewer, W.A., Ehret, G., Hardesty, R.M., Fix, A., Senff, C., Wirth, M., Poberaj, G., LeMone, M.A.: Latent heat flux profiles from collocated airborne water vapor and wind lidars during IHOP_2002. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol. 24, 627–639 (2007)
Kiemle, C., Wirth, M., Fix, A., Ehret, G., Schumann, U., Gardiner, T., Schiller, C., Sitnikov, N., Stiller, G.: First airborne water vapor lidar measurements in the tropical upper troposphere and mid-latitudes lower stratosphere: accuracy evaluation and intercomparisons with other instruments. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 8, 5245–5261 (2008)
Kiemle, C., Wirth, M., Fix, A., Rahm, S., Corsmeier, U., Di Girolamo, P.: Latent heat flux measurements over complex terrain by airborne water vapour and wind lidars. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 137, 190–203 (2011)
Kley, D., Russell, J.M., Phillips, C.: SPARC assessment of upper tropospheric and stratospheric water vapour, WCRP report No. 113, WMO/TD Report No. 1043, World Climate Research Programme, Geneva, 325 pp (2000)
Möller, D., Feichter, J., Herrmann, H.: Von Wolken, Nebel und Niederschlag. In: Zellner, R. (ed.) Chemie über den Wolken, p. 237. Wiley, Weinheim (2011)
Poberaj, G., Fix, A., Assion, A., Wirth, M., Kiemle, C., Ehret, G.: Airborne all-solid-state DIAL for water vapour measurements in the tropopause region: system description and assessment of accuracy. Special issue “trends in laser sources, spectroscopic techniques and their applications to trace gas detection”. Appl. Phys. B 75, 165–172 (2002)
Randall, D.A., Wood, R.A., Bony, S., Colman, R., Fichefet, T., Fyfe, J., Kattsov, V., Pitman, A., Shukla, J., Srinivasan, J., et al.: Climate models and their evaluation. In: Solomon, S., et al. (eds.) Climate change 2007: the physical science basis. Contribution of working group I to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2007)
Schäfler, A., Dörnbrack, A., Kiemle, C., Rahm, S., Wirth, M.: Tropospheric water vapor transport as determined from airborne lidar measurements. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol. 27, 2017–2030 (2010)
Schäfler, A., Dörnbrack, A., Wernli, H., Kiemle, C., Pfahl, S.: Airborne lidar observations in the inflow region of a warm conveyor belt. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 137, 1257–1272 (2011)
Schmidt, H., Schumann, U.: Coherent structure of the convective boundary layer derived from large-eddy simulations. J. Fluid Mech. 200, 511–562 (1989)
Schumann, U., Weinzierl, B., Reitebuch, O., Schlager, H., Minikin, A., Forster, C., Baumann, R., Sailer, T., Graf, K., Mannstein, H., et al.: Airborne observations of the Eyjafjalla volcano ash cloud over Europe during air space closure in April and May 2010. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 11, 2245–2279 (2011). doi:10.5194/acp-11-2245-2011
Tollerud, E.I., Caracena, F., Koch, S.E., Jamison, B.D., Hardesty, R.M., McCarty, B.J., Kiemle, C., Collander, R.S., Bartels, D.L., Albers, S., et al.: Mesoscale moisture transport by the low-level jet during the IHOP field experiment. Mon. Weather Rev. 136, 3781–3795 (2008)
Trenberth, K.E., Dai, A., Rasmussen, R.M., Parsons, D.B.: The changing character of precipitation. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 84, 1205–1217 (2003)
Trenberth, K.E., Jones, P.D., Ambenje, P., Bojariu, R., Easterling, D., Klein Tank, A., Parker, D., Rahimzadeh, F., Renwick, J.A., Rusticucci, M., et al.: Observations: surface and atmospheric climate change. In: Solomon, S., et al. (eds.) Climate change 2007: the physical science basis. Contribution of working group I to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2007)
Voigt, C., Schumann, U., Jurkat, T., Schäuble, D., Schlager, H., Petzold, A., Gayet, J.-F., Krämer, M., Schneider, J., Borrmann, S., et al.: In situ observations of young contrails—overview and selected case studies from the CONCERT campaign. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 10, 9039–9056 (2010). doi:10.5194/acp-10-9039-2010
Wagner, J.S., Gohm, A., Dörnbrack, A., Schäfler, A.: The mesoscale structure of a polar low: airborne lidar measurements and simulations. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 137, 1516–1531 (2011)
Weckwerth, T.M., Parsons, D.B., Koch, S.E., Moore, J.A., Lemone, M.A., Demoz, B.R., Flamant, C., Geerts, B., Wang, J., Feltz, W.: An overview of the international H2O project (IHOP_2002) and some preliminary highlights. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 85, 253–277 (2004)
Weissmann, M., Langland, R.H., Cardinali, C., Rahm, S.: Influence of airborne Doppler wind lidar profiles near Typhoon Sinlaku on ECMWF and NOGAPS forecasts. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 138, 118–130 (2012)
Wernli, H., Davies, H.C.: A Lagrangian-based analysis of extratropical cyclones. I: the method and some applications. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc. 123, 467–489 (1997). doi:10.1002/qj.49712353811
Wirth, M., Fix, A., Mahnke, P., Schwarzer, H., Schrandt, F., Ehret, G.: The airborne multi-wavelength water vapor differential absorption lidar WALES: system design and performance. Appl. Phys. B 96, 201–213 (2009). doi:10.1007/s00340-009-3365-7
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kiemle, C., Schäfler, A., Voigt, C. (2012). Detection and Analysis of Water Vapor Transport. In: Schumann, U. (eds) Atmospheric Physics. Research Topics in Aerospace. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30183-4_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30183-4_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-30182-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-30183-4
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)