title: Balloonborne lidar for cloud physics studies.
abstract: An innovative balloonborne microjoule lidar (MULID) has been developed within the framework of the HIBISCUS project to provide nighttime measurements of visible and subvisible cirrus and aerosols. MULID has been designed to be a low-cost and an ultralow consumption instrument, due to the remote possibilities of payload recovery and the necessity of a low-weight battery power supply. Ground tests have been performed at the Observatory of Haute Provence (France), and the first technical flight has been made from Trapani, Italy, on a stratospheric balloon; finally, the instrument has been scientifically deployed during the pre-HIBISCUS and HIBISCUS tropical campaigns in Bauru, Brazil, in February 2003 and February 2004, respectively. A description of the instrument is provided together with the results of the ground-based and flight tests as well as an overview and discussion of the first results.
authors.affiliation: Ente per le Nuove Tecnologie l'Energia e l'Ambiente, CLIM-Oss, C.R. Casaccia, Via Anguillarese 301, 00060 S.M. di Galeria, Italy. didonfrancesco@frascati.enea.it
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Di Donfrancesco
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cairo
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Buontempo
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Adriani
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Viterbini
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Snels
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Morbidini
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Piccolo
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cardillo
authors.forename: Jean-Pierre
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Pommereau
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garnier