Space-borne profiling of atmospheric thermodynamic variables with Raman lidar: performance simulations

Area of Science:

• Atmospheric Science
• Remote Sensing
• Geophysics

Background:

• Accurate global measurements of water vapor and temperature are essential for numerical weather prediction (NWP) and climate research.
• Current Earth observation systems have critical gaps, particularly in the lower troposphere.
• Space-borne remote sensing techniques struggle to achieve the required accuracy and vertical resolution.

Purpose of the Study:

• To simulate the performance of a space-borne water vapor and temperature lidar using Raman techniques.
• To assess its capability in various environmental and climate scenarios.
• To explore technological solutions for implementing such a system.

Main Methods:

• Simulations of a space-borne lidar exploiting vibrational and pure rotational Raman techniques in the ultraviolet.
• Analysis under diverse environmental and climate conditions.
• Evaluation of performance with varying vertical and horizontal resolutions and in the presence of clouds.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated capability for global-scale water vapor mixing ratio and temperature measurements in the lower to middle troposphere.
• Simulated water vapor profiling precision of 10% up to 4 km and temperature profiling precision of 0.40-0.75 K up to 15 km.
• Measurements are feasible above and below cirrus clouds (optical thickness 0.3).

Conclusions:

• Space-borne Raman lidar offers unprecedented accuracy and vertical resolution for atmospheric profiling.
• This technology can significantly improve NWP and climate research by closing observational gaps.
• Technological advancements in lasers, telescopes, and detectors enable the implementation of such systems.