Previous: Ext. Abst. Next: Main features of the instrumental and data processing Up: Ext. Abst.

The study of the cirrus clouds is of special interest for the scientific community, because it have been recognized they have a great influence on weather and climate trough their effect on the radiative energy budget in the Earth ? Atmosphere system. The behavior of tropical cirrus and the relationship whit the dehydration process in the vicinity of the tropical tropopause have not still been very well understood. This paper presents the new method development in the Camagüey Lidar Station (CLS) for the determination of the cirrus clouds geometrical properties. We explain the behavior of geometrical properties of cirrus clouds (transparent or semitransparent) measured with radar laser (Lidar) in the Meteorological Center of Camagüey (21.40º N, 77.92º E) during the period of 1993 ? 1999. The results show in general for the Cloud Base and Cloud Top average, the values of 10.71 and 13.97 km respectively. While for the rainy period these variables have the values of 10.61 and 14.06 km and for the dry period 11.12 and 13.59 km.

1. Introduction

The cirrus clouds play an important role in the climate system, and it is influence in the radiation budget of the earth (Sassen, 1992). And, recently, the contribution by the cirrus clouds to the concentration of water vapor in the Upper Troposphere, is presently under depth scrutiny. The scientific community is trying to understand its role in the hydrologic cycle of the planet (WCRP, 1998). In this propose the measurement of lidar is very fundamental technique as complementation of the geometrical and microphysical characteristics of cirrus clouds determination with other techniques such as satellite, sunphotometers, spectrometers, etc.

There are only few lidars in the tropical zone, one of the less studied regions of the planet but at the same time a very important piece in our effort to understand the climate system. One of those lidars is located in the Camagüey Lidar Station (CLS) at the Meteorological Center (CMC), Cuba, (21 24´ N, 77 51´ W).

In this paper we report the new method developed in the CLS and the most behavior of it in comparison with past manual algorithm. Also, the geometrical properties of cirrus clouds (subvisibles) measured with lidar in nighttime during the period of 1993 - 1999 is show.

Previous: Ext. Abst. Next: Main features of the instrumental and data processing Up: Ext. Abst.