Speaker – Tammy M. Weckwerth, NCAR/Earth Observing Laboratory (hosted by M. Parker)

Seminar Title – MicroPulse Differential Absorption Lidar (MPD) for Thermodynamic Profiling

Abstract – NCAR’s Earth Observing Laboratory develops and deploys a variety of observational instrumentation in support of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the university community. These instruments and platforms include research aircraft, surface weather stations, radar wind profilers, radars and lidars. I will begin by giving a brief overview of the EOL instrumentation available to NSF PIs via the Deployment Pool.

The bulk of my presentation will focus on a relatively new MicroPulse DIAL (DIfferential Absorption Lidar; MPD) that was created through a collaboration with Montana State University to profile water vapor within the lower troposphere. This eye-safe, low-power instrument provides continuous and unattended profiles of absolute humidity. One MPD has been successfully deployed to multiple worldwide field campaigns. Recently a network of five MPDs was completed and was deployed for the first time at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurements (ARM) U.S. Southern Great Plains (SGP) sites during Summer 2019.

Intercomparisons with mature water vapor measurement techniques show excellent agreement. Preliminary observational analyses to study spatial and temporal variability of water vapor are underway. Plans for water vapor data assimilation studies to study the observation impact of MPD upon forecasting high-impact weather events will be described. Further MPD development efforts are targeting the potential of providing concurrent temperature profiles via the DIAL architecture. I encourage you to consider how you could field MPD and supplementary EOL instruments to address your atmospheric science research objectives.