Wyoming Cloud Lidar: instrument description and applications

The Wyoming Cloud Lidar (WCL), a compact two-channel elastic lidar, was designed to obtain cloud measurements together with the Wyoming Cloud Radar (WCR) on the University of Wyoming King Air and the National Science Foundation/National Center of Atmospheric Research C-130 aircraft. The WCL has been deployed in four field projects under a variety of atmospheric and cloud conditions during the last two years. Throughout these campaigns, it has exhibited the needed reliability for turnkey operation from aircraft. We provide here an overview of the instrument and examples to illustrate the measurements capability of the WCL. Although the WCL as a standalone instrument can provide unique measurements for cloud and boundary layer aerosol studies, the synergy of WCL and WCR measurements coupled with in situ sampling from an aircraft provide a significant step forward in our ability to observe and understand cloud microphysical property evolution. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America