We report on lidar-based study of the atmospheric boundary lidar in progress at the Howard University Campus in Beltsville, Maryland, located approximately 12 miles NE of Washington DC. The Howard University Raman lidar is part of a new comprehensive research instrumentation and Education site. The HRL uses a triple ND:YAG laser with a typical operating power of 10 W and acquires data within three channels, at 354.7 nm (elastic backscatter and pure rotational Raman respectively), 386.7 nm and 407.5 nm (Raman scattering from nitrogen molecules and water vapor molecules). Eye-safety is accomplished by means of a 15X beam expander.

We report on the utility of the Howard Raman lidar and extended observations made during a summer 2006 campaign called WAVES (Water Vapor Variability – Satellite/Sondes). Other papers will focus on comparisons of the lidar measurements with radiosonde and other instrumentation. In this presentation we will focus on the utility of the HRL on boundary layer moisture characterization of moisture through different meteorological events. In particular, we will show case study examples from operations in the summer of 2006.

We will report on integrated analysis of case study investigations of data from a multi-level tower, profiler, microwave radiometer, sonde and other ancillary data sets. HRL performance in characterizing the convective boundary layer will be demonstrated using a case study from 15-16 June 2006. Frontal dynamics discussions and the role of HRL in the REALM lidar network and in an emerging mesoscale water vapor variability observation network will be discussed.