Investigation of Sub-Pixel Variability with a Tri-Raman Water Vapor Network during WAVES

Variability across a single pixel from a satellite imager is a source of error when describing large spatial regions with pixel sizes on the order of tens of kilometers. This paper describes the application of a network of three Raman water vapor lidars to address the water vapor and aerosol variability seen within a 30 km portion of the Baltimore-Washington corridor. The lidars, the Howard University Raman Lidar (HURL), the GSFC Scanning Raman Lidar (SRL), both located at Beltsville MD, and the University of Maryland Baltimore County Atmospheric Lidar Experiment (ALEX) participated in the Water Vapor Validation Experiment Satellite/Sondes (WAVES) field campaign. Extensive coordinated measurements were made between July 7, 2006 and August 10, 2006 and have been used to estimate the transport speed of tropospheric aerosol and water vapor features and explore the variability seen between the stations as functions of time and altitude.