First Airborne Doppler Lidar Observations of the Wind Field During MAP- SOP. Validation Results in the Vicinity of a High Altitude Jet.

Abstract

First observations of the wind field have been performed with the new airborne Doppler lidar WIND during the MAP-SOP on October 11 and 12, 1999, just before IOP-6. The system has been developed in French-German cooperation of CNRS/CNES and DLR within the projekt WIND (Wind Infrared Doppler Lidar). It is the first airborne Doppler lidar for atmospheric research to retrieve the whole tropospheric wind profile between ground and flight level. Flying on board DLR Falcon 20, it is able to retrieve the three-dimensional wind vector with a vertical resolution of 250 m along the flight track. The dynamics in the vicinity of a high altitude jet could be studied during a flight from Munich to Berlin. Wind velocities up to 50 ms-1 in 10 km altitude could be observed. Simultanuous measurements of the windprofiler radar of the German Weather Service in Lindenberg are in agreement within 1.8 ms-1 and 5 ° for the horizontal wind vector. Strong spatial gradients of the wind velocities on a scale of 200 km were observed while flying south. Measurements of WIND will be presented and compared with profiler data as well as with simulation results from mesoscale models (DWD Lokal Modell, French meso-NH model).