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Abstract
In the prospect of a possible discontinuance of the Nancy meteorological synoptic station, due to human costs and technological evolution, a survey, conducted by forecasters has stressed the need to maintain high-resolution measurements of temperature, humidity and wind in the region, at least up to 4 km height.
Consequently, a locally-managed project at the Strasbourg regional centre of Météo-France has been launched in order to study the capabilities offered by a combination of ground-based remote-sensing instruments as an alternative to radio soundings. To this purpose, the COPS Campaign was considered a good opportunity due to the large network of such instruments implemented on five super sites in the nearby region of Alsace and Black Forest during summer 2007.
This study was made on the available data using UHF profilers, sodars, lidars, radiometers and GPS. Various techniques of observation were evaluated with radiosoundings as reference, first on individual instruments, and then on particular combinations based on their complementary effectiveness.
A first evaluation study, made in the first half of 2008, demonstrated the effectiveness of wind profile observations using a combination of UHF profiler and sodar, but it could not give a definite answer concerning humidity and temperature retrieval on a continuous basis. It has now been completed with a validation of radiometric data at three sites, which have shown good prospects for temperature measurements, with still open questions concerning accurate humidity profiles.
This paper will present up-to-date results and methodology used to exploit the combination of remote-sensing instruments for operational purposes.