Abstract
Instrumentation for the measurement of ambient humidity, incorporating a liquid nitrogen-cooled tunable lead–salt laser and a reduced pressure multipass absorption cell, was installed on the Lockheed L-1011 advanced research aircraft and tested on four flights. Humidity measurements taken over altitudes ranging from 0.76 to 10.7 km were compared to results obtained with a commercial dew point hygrometer. The flight tests showed generally good agreement between the two devices to within the estimated accuracies of the instruments. At altitudes above 8 or 9 km the hygrometer is not reliable, whereas the diode laser system exhibited very good sensitivity at the highest altitudes attained. A time response of better than 0.1 s was demonstrated. We believe that a compact diode laser instrument can ultimately measure atmospheric water vapor concentrations over a wide altitude range with an accuracy of better than 3%.
© 1987 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
Georges Durry and Gerard Megie
Appl. Opt. 39(30) 5601-5608 (2000)
André Zuber and Georg Witt
Appl. Opt. 26(15) 3083-3089 (1987)
Noah S. Higdon, Edward V. Browell, Patrick Ponsardin, Benoist E. Grossmann, Carolyn F. Butler, Thomas H. Chyba, M. Neale Mayo, Robert J. Allen, Alene W. Heuser, William B. Grant, Syed Ismail, Shane D. Mayor, and Arlen F. Carter
Appl. Opt. 33(27) 6422-6438 (1994)