Articles | Volume 7, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-1201-2014
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-1201-2014
Research article
 | 
09 May 2014
Research article |  | 09 May 2014

Tropospheric water vapour and relative humidity profiles from lidar and microwave radiometry

F. Navas-Guzmán, J. Fernández-Gálvez, M. J. Granados-Muñoz, J. L. Guerrero-Rascado, J. A. Bravo-Aranda, and L. Alados-Arboledas

Abstract. In this paper, we outline an iterative method to calibrate the water vapour mixing ratio profiles retrieved from Raman lidar measurements. Simultaneous and co-located radiosonde data are used for this purpose and the calibration results obtained during a radiosonde campaign in summer and autumn 2011 are presented. The water vapour profiles measured during night-time by the Raman lidar and radiosondes are compared and the differences between the methodologies are discussed. Then, a new approach to obtain relative humidity profiles by combination of simultaneous profiles of temperature (retrieved from a microwave radiometer) and water vapour mixing ratio (from a Raman lidar) is addressed. In the last part of this work, a statistical analysis of water vapour mixing ratio and relative humidity profiles obtained during 1 year of simultaneous measurements is presented.