Reply to 'Comments on "Comparison of rafar reflectivity and vertical velocity observed with a scannable c-band doppler radar and two UHF profilers in the lower troposphere"'

Marie Lothon (1) , Bernard Campistron (1) , Sandra Jacoby Koaly (1) , Bruno Bénech (1) , Fabienne Lohou (1) , Fanny Girard-Ardhuin (1) , Aimé Druilhet (1)

1 LAERO - Laboratoire d'aérologie

The objective of Lothon et al.'s (2002, hereafter L2002) paper was to investigate the ability of a scannable C-band Doppler meteorological radar for the documentation of the lower clear atmosphere with an emphasis on the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). Comparison with the observations of two UHF wind profilers provided the opportunity to address the problem of the so-called downward bias of UHF vertical velocity measurements made in a fully developed and turbulent convective ABL previously put in evidence and described by Angevine (1997). Worthington's (2003) reproach of a too-narrow review of the different aspects of this problem is valid, but a thorough survey of this question was beyond the scope of the paper. The ambition of the authors was to bring some elements of discussion to this open debate—elements that tend to confirm Angevine's conclusion on the existence of UHF downward bias of instrumental origin. In the reply presented in the following section we discuss Worthington's (2003) suggestion of the possible meteorological origin of the UHF vertical velocity bias observed in the ABL. Coming back to certain arguments developed previously in L2002, the importance of which seems underestimated in Worthington's comment, and with new data analysis, we reinforce our position on a most probable instrumental origin of the UHF vertical bias.

Domaines: Physique Atmosphérique et Océanique [physics.ao-ph]

Marie Lothon, Bernard Campistron, Sandra Jacoby Koaly, Bruno Bénech, Fabienne Lohou, et al.. Reply to 'Comments on "Comparison of rafar reflectivity and vertical velocity observed with a scannable c-band doppler radar and two UHF profilers in the lower troposphere"'. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 2003, 20 (8), pp.1224-1229. ⟨10.1175/1520-0426(2003)020<1224:R>2.0.CO;2⟩. ⟨hal-00138892⟩