Title: Vapor In-Cloud Profiling Radar for the Planetary Boundary Layer
Presenting Author: Raquel Rodriguez Monje
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory - California Institute of Technology
Co-Author(s): Matthew Lebsock, Ken Cooper, Richard Roy, Luis Millan Valle, Jose Siles, Robert Dengler

Abstract:
High vertical resolution measurements of water vapor and temperature profiles are critical atmospheric observations that cannot be obtain with current technology. Humidity vertical profile measurements are particularly important to the planetary boundary layer (PBL) were most of its key physical processes (e.g. clouds, convection) are dominated by its water vapor content. Vapor In-Cloud Profiling Radar (VIPR) is an airborne-prototype instrument being developed under ESTO's Instrument Incubator Program (IIP). VIPR instrument will perform, for the first-time, humidity profiling inside boundary layer clouds and total column water vapor of over all surfaces, by means of the differential absorption radar (DAR) technique across the 167-174.8 GHz transmit band near the H2O line. We will present first ground VIPR detections of clouds and humidity and ground instrument validation with radiosondes. This new measurement technique will cut across several of the Earth Science focus areas in Decadal Survey Report, including Weather Science, Climate Variability and Change, and Water Resources and Global Hydrologic Cycle formation.