The first year of Raman lidar observations at Darwin

 

Authors

Subhashree Mishra — DOE - SunShot Initiative, AAAS S&T Policy Fellow
David D. Turner — NOAA- Global Systems Laboratory
Rob K Newsom — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
John E. M. Goldsmith — Sandia National Laboratories
Richard A. Ferrare — NASA - Langley Research Center

Category

Atmospheric State & Surface

Description

The ARM Tropical Western Pacific (TWP) site in Darwin, Australia, provides a unique set of climate regimes. Darwin experiences three distinct climate patterns annually, consisting of (1) a dry continental regime from May to September, (2) a wet monsoon season from December to March, and (3) transition periods in April and October/November. The warmest sea surface temperatures associated with the Pacific warm pool are also observed in the TWP region. The dynamic and thermodynamic forcings associated with the Pacific warm pool significantly affect the atmosphere’s general circulation. Thus, the TWP region plays a major role in the global inter-annual climate variability.

Funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act enabled the installation of a new Raman lidar at the TWP site in Darwin. The Raman lidar (RL) is a laser-based active remote sensing instrument that provides continuous vertical profiles of water vapor mixing ratio and several other cloud- and aerosol-related quantities at high vertical and temporal resolution. Hence, RL data provide important climatological information for better characterization of atmospheric conditions around the TWP region. The RL at the Darwin site has been operational since December 2010 with occasional downtimes resulting from instrument issues.

This poster will provide an overview of the first year of TWP RL data. This will include comparisons of RL water vapor profiles with radiosondes, as well as evaluation of aerosol extinction and backscatter, cloud depolarization, and other variables. An initial climatology of water vapor mixing ratio, relative humidity, and aerosol will also be presented.