Darmstadt 2008 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik

UP 1: Atmosphäre und Klima

UP 1.10: Vortrag

Dienstag, 11. März 2008, 11:15–11:30, 3B

A Seasonal Cycle of Stratospheric Water Vapour above Mérida, Venezuela — •Sven H W Golchert¹, Mathias Palm¹, Christoph Hoffmann¹, Pedro Hoffmann², Gerd Hochschild³, and Justus Notholt¹ — ¹Institut für Umweltphysik, Universität Bremen, Germany — ²Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela — ³Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung, Universität und Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany

The authors report on the first ground-based microwave radiometer being permanently operated in the tropics for the detection of middle-atmospheric water vapour distribution. The 22 GHz receiver WaRAM2 is continuously recording data above Mérida, Venezuela, since December 2006. It is set up at Mérida Atmospheric Research Station on top Pico Espejo (8°N, 72°W, 4760 m).

Water vapour plays a key role in atmospheric processes, both chemical and dynamical. It exhibits strong radiative activity, owing to its large infrared resonance, and forms a source gas for the highly reactive OH radical. It also substantially contributes to atmospheric heat transfer. Yet the processes governing water vapour distribution, variability, and trends are still not sufficiently understood. Mitigating these uncertanties presents a pressing issue for future climate modelling. The presentation demonstrates the suitability of WaRAM2 measurements for such an effort. An overview is given of the instrument performance and the retrieval of geophysical parameters from the data. Cross comparisons with other data round off the discussion.