Lidar Measurements under the Experimental Cloud Lidar Pilot Study (ECLIPS)

Abstract

The ECLIPS [1] program has been established to provide an opportunity to study clouds with a vertically pointing ground-based lidar simultaneously with satellites observing the same cloud system from above. Our typical lidar measurement time series is about 3 hours duration encompassing a satellite overpass. Several months of such measurements have provided us with a large set of cloud data. We have completed an initial development of the analytical methodologies to examine such large amounts of lidar data to extract information on cloud physical and optical parameters. At present our activities under ECLIPS program are already yielding considerable insight into cloud behaviour which otherwise is difficult to determine with conventional means.