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

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.