Validation of a water vapor micropulse differential absorption lidar (DIAL)

A water vapor micropulse differential absorption lidar (DIAL) instrument was developed collaboratively by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Montana State University (MSU). This innovative, eye-safe, low-power, diode-laser-based system has demonstrated the ability to obtain unattended continuous observations in both day and night. Data comparisons with well-established water vapor observing systems, including radiosondes, Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometers (AERIs), microwave radiometer profilers (MWRPs), and ground-based global positioning system (GPS) receivers, show excellent agreement. The Pearson's correlation coefficient for the DIAL and radiosondes is consistently greater than 0.6 from 300m up to 4.5 km AGL at night and up to 3.5 km AGL during the day. The Pearson's correlation coefficient for the DIAL and AERI is greater than 0.6 from 300mup to 2.25 km at night and from 300mup to 2.0 km during the day. Further comparison with the continuously operating GPS instrumentation illustrates consistent temporal trends when integrating the DIAL measurements up to 6 km AGL.

To Access Resource:

Questions? Email Resource Support Contact:

  • opensky@ucar.edu
    UCAR/NCAR - Library

Resource Type publication
Temporal Range Begin N/A
Temporal Range End N/A
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat N/A
Bounding Box South Lat N/A
Bounding Box West Long N/A
Bounding Box East Long N/A
Spatial Representation N/A
Spatial Resolution N/A
Related Links

Related Dataset #1 : FP3 AERIoe Thermodynamic Profile Retrieval Data. Version 2.0

Related Dataset #2 : NCAR/EOL Water Vapor DIAL, QC data in netCDF. Version 1.0

Related Dataset #3 : FP3 University of Manitoba MWR Radiometrics Retrieval Profile Data. Version 1.0

Related Dataset #4 : FP3 Ellis, KS Radiosonde Data. Version 2.0

Related Dataset #5 : FP3 NCAR/EOL Water Vapor DIAL, QC data in netCDF. Version 2.0
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format PDF
Standardized Resource Format PDF
Asset Size N/A
Legal Constraints

Copyright 2016 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work.
Access Constraints None
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name N/A
Resource Support Email opensky@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library
Distributor N/A
Metadata Contact Name N/A
Metadata Contact Email opensky@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library

Author Weckwerth, Tammy
Weber, Kristy
Turner, D. D.
Spuler, Scott M.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2016-11-01T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
Alternate Identifier N/A
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
Progress N/A
Metadata Date 2025-07-11T19:54:01.197271
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:19357
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Weckwerth, Tammy, Weber, Kristy, Turner, D. D., Spuler, Scott M.. (2016). Validation of a water vapor micropulse differential absorption lidar (DIAL). UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7251kzf. Accessed 09 August 2025.

Harvest Source