title: Relative-humidity profiling in the troposphere with a Raman lidar.
abstract: We describe a Raman-lidar-based approach to acquiring profiles of the relative humidity of air. For this purpose we combined in one instrument the Raman-lidar techniques that are used for the profiling of water vapor and temperature. This approach enabled us to acquire, for the first time to our knowledge, vertical profiles of relative humidity through the entire troposphere exclusively from Raman-lidar data. The methods applied to determining the water-vapor mixing ratio, temperature, and relative humidity and the corresponding uncertainties caused by systematic errors and signal noise are presented. The lidar-derived profiles are compared with profiles measured with radiosondes. Radiosonde observations are also used to calibrate the Raman lidar. Close agreement of the profiles of relative humidity measured with lidar and those measured with radiosonde demonstrates the potential of this novel approach.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Ina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mattis
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ansmann
authors.forename: Dietrich
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Althausen
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Jaenisch
authors.forename: Ulla
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Wandinger
authors.forename: Detlef
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Yuri F
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Arshinov
authors.forename: Sergej M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Bobrovnikov
authors.forename: Ilya B
authors.initials: IB
authors.lastname: Serikov