Update on the Integrated Upper Air Water Vapor System

This extended abstract will provide an update to the meteorological community for this new concept of providing and integrating water vapor measurements from the surface to various points aloft throughout the troposphere using different sensors all situated into one system. One day this approach to sensing the atmosphere for this critical atmospheric parameter could become a continuous and near real-time method unlike today where it is sporadic and requires expendables to be used up. The composite system was described at last year's AMS under a Phase 1 Small Business Innovation Research initiative. A Phase 2 SBIR was awarded to Bennett Aerospace of Cary, North Carolina this past summer and is underway. No details from their designs will be divulged in this abstract; rather it will provide an overview of what is planned for Phase 2 and how the pieces will be integrated into a new composite real-time water vapor monitoring system. One challenge will be how to maximize the LIDAR data when certain weather conditions exist and a description of a possible technique for mitigating this issue will be discussed in the extended abstract. Preliminary thoughts on a potential network configuration will also be outlined as it pertains to this concept.