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A Tropospheric Water Vapour Climatology And Trends Derived From Vibrational Raman Lidar Measurements Over Switzerland, Shannon Hicks-Jalali

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Water vapour is the most effective atmospheric greenhouse gas in terms of warming the atmosphere. Water vapour can magnify the temperature increase that CO₂ would cause alone by 2-3 times. As such, it is critical to monitor changes in water vapour abundance to better understand its role in atmospheric change. I have used 10 years of lidar and radiosonde measurements from the MeteoSwiss research station in Payerne, Switzerland to calibrate the lidar, improve its water vapour retrievals, and finally calculate a lidar water vapour climatology and trend analysis.

Calculating trends with a lidar requires rigorous calibration. Therefore, my first …