Raman Lidar measurements of atmospheric temperature during the International H2O Project

Measurements of atmospheric temperature have been performed by the NASA Scanning Raman Lidar in the context of the International H2O Project (IHOP). Measurements are based on the application of the pure rotational Raman technique and represent to our knowledge the first measurements using the pure rotational Raman technique in the UV region, where eye-safe concerns are less stringent than in the visible and IR. The present work focuses on the intercomparison between lidar and radiosondes measurements. Based on 90 minutes data averaging, lidar measurements are found to extend up to 23 km and deviations between Raman lidar and simultaneous radiosondes are found not to exceed 3 K.