Determination of airflow across the Alpine ridge by a combination of airborne Doppler lidar, routine radiosounding and numerical simulation

Abstract

Abstract The Wind Infrared Doppler lidar (WIND) instrument was flown on board the aircraft Falcon of the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft‐ und Raumfahrt on two missions during the Special Observing Period (SOP) of the Mesoscale Alpine Programme (MAP). During the first flight two complete sections of horizontal wind speed and direction were sampled up to a height of 7 km from Innsbruck to the Po basin and back. From the second mission 11 WIND soundings from 11 km downwards are presented along a route from a jet stream of up to 45 m s −1 above Berlin towards the Alps. A routine radiosounding from Milano and episode‐type simulations with the Meso‐NH modelling system are used for detailed comparisons and to obtain comparative statistics. Copyright © 2003 Royal Meteorological Society.