Continuous water vapor profiles from operational ground-based active and passive remote sensors

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program's Southern Great Plains Cloud and Radiation Testbed site central facility near Lament, Oklahoma, offers unique operational water vapor profiling capabilities, including active and passive remote sensors as well as traditional in situ radiosonde measureme nts. Remote sensing technologies include an automated Raman lidar and an au tomated Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI), which are able to retrieve water vapor profiles operationally through the lower tropospher e throughout the diurnal cycle. Comparisons of these two water vapor remote sensing methods to each other and to radiosondes over an 8-month period ar e presented and discussed, highlighting the accuracy and limitations of eac h method. Additionally, the AERI is able to retrieve profiles of temperatur e while the Raman lidar is able to retrieve aerosol extinction profiles ope rationally. These data, coupled with hourly wind profiles from a 915-MHz wi nd profiler, provide complete specification of the state of the atmosphere in noncloudy skies. Several case studies illustrate the utility of these hi gh temporal resolution measurements in the characterization of mesoscale fe atures within a 3-day time period in which passage of a dryline, warm air a dvection, and cold front occurred.