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Alvice

General

The ALVICE mobile laboratory contains a suite of instruments with major focus on water vapour measurements. The 40' trailer contains a Raman-Rayleigh-Mie lidar that measures water vapour, aerosol, depolarization, cloud liquid and ice water, rotational-Raman temperature. The trailer contains ground station equipment for launching Vaisla and Intermet radiosondes as well as the Cryogenic Frostpoint Hygrometer. A mobile member of the Suominet network measures total column water and a surface reference station measures NIST traceable temperature, pressure and relative humity (T, P, RH) and has a ventilated chamber for radiosonde pre-launch accuracy studies. The ground station equipment for receiving the NOAA Frostpoint Hygrometer is also present in the trailer.

Instrument Description

The laser used is a Continuum 9050 laser with nominal output of 17.5W at 355 nm. Daytime water vapour profiles are available every 3 minutes to an altitude of 4-5 km. Nighttime water vapour profiles extending to the lower stratosphere are possible under clear viewing conditions with several hours of data acquisition. Measurement campaigns in which the ALVICE system has participated include MOHAVE-II (2007), N_WAVES-2009, MOHAVE-2009, WAVES-2011, WAVES-2012, UWO_2012, WAVES-2013. The home location for the ALVICE system is the Howard University Beltsville Research Campus in Beltsville, MD.

References

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