Combined airborne lidar measurments of moisture transport and cirrus properties: HALO-LIDAR

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Lidar measurements of wind, water vapour, ozone, aerosol or clouds are key components of a significant number of planned HALO missions. Although these missions have differing scientific goals and utilise different combinations of lidars and other instruments, a common focus on extratropical weather systems and the common reliance on lidar data provides unique opportunities to develop methods and obtain scientific results beyond what is possible in the context of the individual missions. The aim of HALO-LIDAR is to exploit these synergies by addressing a subset of scientific goals that span several HALO missions, and to develop methods for analysing physically relevant quantities based on combinations of data from lidars and other instruments. The scientific goals centre around measurements of transport and fluxes, especially of water vapour, upstream of developing North Atlantic cyclones, of cirrus properties in their warm sector, and around the identification of related key physical processes through combinations of constituent measurements. Model data from associated projects, especially ensemble simulations, will be exploited to quantify uncertainties due to atmospheric variability. HALO-LIDAR will enable new and better evaluations of weather forecasting and climate models through added value data products based on combinations of instruments and careful quantification of errors and uncertainties.