Dual wavelength Raman lidar observations of tropical cirrus clouds during the ALBATROSS campaign 1996

Abstract

Recent model calculations have shown that the extreme dryness of the tropical lower stratosphere can be explained by slow uplift of air masses by large-scale motions leading to the formation of an ubiquitous cirrus cloud layer [1]. We present first results from lidar observations of tropical cirrus clouds above the Atlantic ocean during the ALBATROSS campaign (Atmospheric chemistry and lidar studies above the Atlantic ocean related to ozone and other trace gases in the tropo- and stratosphere) in October-November 1996.