Expression of Commitment

to COST Action ES-0604

Title: “Water Vapour in the Climate System (WaVaCS)”

1./ Individual’s Name:

Felicita Russo, Gelsomina Pappalardo, Fabio Madonna

2./ Organization Name & Address:

Istituto di Metodologie per l'Analisi Ambientale, I.M.A.A. - C.N.R., Contrada S. Loja, Tito Scalo zona industriale, I-85050 Potenza, Italy.

3./ Contribution:

WG1

a./ Role in Action:

Felicita Russo (member of the action), Gelsomina Pappalardo (member of MC), Fabio Madonna (member of the action).

b./ Parts of the scientific programme where contributions will be made:

D1.1, D1.2, D1.3

4./ Deliverables:

Regarding the deliverable D1.1 we plan on reporting on the current atmospheric water vapour measurement techniques available at the IMAA/CNR, namely Raman lidar, microwave radiometer and radiosondes.

For the deliverable D1.2 we plan on building a statistical cross-comparison between Raman lidar, microwave radiometer and radiosondes at the IMAA/CNR and any other intercomparison available within the Action.

Regarding the deliverable D1.3 we will develop integrated techniques for water vapour profiling using the Raman lidar and the microwave radiometer.

5./ Timetable:

We plan on delivering D1.1 by the end of the first year, D1.2 by the first half of the third year and D1.3 at the end of the fourth year of the Action.

6./ Manpower approximately dedicated to the Action:

Approximately 12 person months.

7./ Assurance:

The work foreseen in the deliverables listed in item 4 is of great interest to the IMAA/CNR, seen the availability of a large set of systematic Raman lidar, microwave radiometer and radiosonde data since 2002. The work is also assured by the involvement of personnel permanently employed by the IMAA/CNR and by the presence of national and European funds allocated to the IMAA/CNR for research on related topics.

8./ Foreseen collaboration:

Cost Action ES0702: European Ground-Based Observations of Essential Variables for Climate and Operational Meteorology (EG-CLIMET)

Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study (COPS) project.

9./ Previous experience:

Individual’s Name: Felicita Russo.

Dr. Russo is a researcher at the CNR-IMAA. She graduated in Physics in December 2000 working on aerosol measurements with a Raman lidar. She attended the graduate school in Atmospheric Physics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland USA. While she was student she worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA acquiring experience in the analysis of Raman lidar data and techniques for the comparison of water vapour data obtained by different instruments. Part of her work regarded also the study of the interaction between aerosols and clouds using Raman lidar data. In 2007 she obtained her PhD from the University of Maryland.

Individual’s Name: Gelsomina Pappalardo.

Dr. Pappalardo is the chief scientist of the CNR-IMAA lidar laboratory. She has over 14 years research experience in the field of atmospheric studies with lidar techniques. She has authored or co-authored more than 40 papers in the peer-reviewed literature. Dr. Gelsomina Pappalardo participated as PI in several national and international projects. In particular, she coordinated the CNR-IMAA research activity in the validation program of the LITE experiment; she participated in the EU Project INFM “Innovative optical techniques for the environmental monitoring”; she participated in the EU Project “Atmospheric pollution monitoring in the urban and industrial areas”; she coordinated the WP “Compilation of lidar ratio data base” in the framework of the EARLINET Project; she coordinated the validation activity for MIPAS water vapour data in the framework of ENVISAT/Cal/Val/ESA project using the ground based measurements provided by the several involved groups. She is the coordinator of the EARLINETASOS Project. Dr. Gelsomina Pappalardo is the EARLINET speaker.

Individual’s Name: Fabio Madonna.

Fabio Madonna earned a Laurea degree in Physics from the University of Study of Rome "La Sapienza", in 2003, discussing a thesis concerning the application ofairborne lidar techniques for the observation of atmospheric aerosol in the frame of Mid-latitude ENVISAT validation campaign.

In March 2006 he earned his PhD from the University of Basilicata with a thesis concerning the use of lidar and microwave application to the study of water vapour and clouds.

Since 2006 he is research assistant at the CNR-IMAA. His activity is devoted to the application of the lidar and microwave techniques and in their integration to improve the profiling of atmospheric parameters, such as temperature, water vapour and cloud liquid water. He is also involved in the development of multi-wavelength lidar systems for the investigation of atmospheric aerosol.

He participated in several international experiments, such as EAQUATE, LAUNCH-2005 and COPS-2007, where he was the PI of the CNR-IMAA microwave profiler.

10./ Publications:

  • F. Madonna, C. Cornacchia, G. D’Amico, A. Amodeo, G. Pappalardo – A deep stratospheric intrusion observed over Europe using lidar and microwave profiling techniques (in preparation).
  • F. Madonna, A. Amodeo, C. Cornacchia, G. D’Amico, L. Mona, M. Pandolfi, G. Pappalardo, V. Cuomo - Multichannel microwave radiometer and water vapor Raman lidar: comparisons and synergies – Rivista Italiana di Telerilevamento, 35, 115-130, ISSN: 1129-8596, 2006.
  • Gerhard Adrian, Dietrich Althausen, Fumiko Aoshima, Joel van Baelen, Christian Barthlott, Hans-Stefan Bauer, Andreas Behrendt, Alan Blyth, Christine Brandau, Ulrich Corsmeier, George Craig, Susanne Crewell, Galina Dick, Manfred Dorninger, Yann Dufournet, Gerhard Ehret, Ronny Engelmann. Cyrille Flamant, Thomas Foken, Christian Hauck, Paolo Di Girolamo, Hartmut Graßl, Mathias Grzeschik, Jan Handwerker, Martin Hagen, R. Michael Hardesty, Christian Hauck, Volfgang Junkermann, Norbert Kalthoff, Christoph Kiemle, Christoph Kottmeier, Liane Krauss, Charles Long, Jos Lelieveld, Fabio Madonna, Mark Miller, Stephen Mobbs, Bruno Neininger, Sandip Pal, Gerhard Peters, Marcus Radlach, Evelyne Richard, Mathias Rotach, Herman Russchenberg, Peter Schlüssel, Ulrich Schumann, Clemens Simmer, Reinhold Steinacker, Dave Turner, Siegfried Vogt, Hans Volkert, Tammy Weckwerth, Heini Wernli, Andreas Wieser, Volker Wulfmeyer, Claudia Wunraum - Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study (COPS) Field Report 2.1 – Edited by Volker Wulfmeyer and Andreas Behrendt, Università di Hohenheim, Germania, 21 dicembre 2007 (
  • M. Ridolfi, U. Blum, B. Carli, V. Catoire, S. Ceccherini, H. Claude, C. De Clercq, K. H. Fricke, F. Friedl-Vallon, M. Iarlori, P. Keckhut, B. Kerridge, J.-C. Lambert, Y. J. Meijer, L. Mona, H. Oelhaf, G. Pappalardo, M. Pirre, V. Rizi, C. Robert, D. Swart, T. von Clarmann, A. Waterfall, and G. Wetzel - Geophysical validation of temperature retrieved by the ESA processor from MIPAS/ENVISAT atmospheric limb-emission measurements - Atmos. Chem. Phys., 7, 4459-4487, 2007.
  • J. P. Taylor ,W. Smith, V. Cuomo, A. Larar, D. Zhou, C. Serio, T. Maestri, R. Rizzi, S. Newman, P. Antonelli, S. Mango, P. Di Girolamo, F. Esposito, G. Grieco, D. Summa, R. Restieri, G. Masiello, F. Romano, G. Pappalardo, G. Pavese, L. Mona, A. Amodeo, G. Pisani, EAQUATE – An International Experiment For Hyper-spectral Atmospheric Sounding Validation, accepted for pubblication on Bullettin of American Meteorology Society, 2007.
  • L. Mona, C. Cornacchia, G. D'Amico, P. Di Girolamo, G. Pappalardo, G. Pisani, D. Summa, X. Wang, V. Cuomo, Characterization of the heterogeneity of the humidity and cloud fields as observed from a cluster of ground-based lidar systems, V. 133, Issue S3, 257-271, 2007.
  • Daniel K. Zhou, W.L. Smith, V. Cuomo, J.P. Taylor, C.D. Barnet, P. Di Girolamo, G. Pappalardo, A.M. Larar, X. Liu, S.M. Newman, C. Lee, and S.A. Mango, Retrieval validation during the European Aqua Thermodynamic Experiment, V. 133, Issue S3, 203-215, 2007.
  • F. Madonna, A. Amodeo, C. Cornacchia, G. D’Amico, L. Mona, M.Pandolfi, G. Pappalardo, V. Cuomo - Multichannel microwave radiometer and water vapour Raman lidar: comparisons and synergies – AITinforma - Rivista Italiana di telerilevamento, 35, 115-130, 2006.
  • Whiteman, D. N., F. Russo, L. Miloshevich, B. Demoz, Z. Wang, I. Veselovskii, H. Voemel, S. Hannon, B. Lesht, F. Schmidlin, A. Gambacorta, C. Barnet,” Analysis of Raman lidar and radiosonde measurements from the AWEX-G field campaign and its relation to Aqua validation”, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D09S09, doi: 10.1029/2005JD006429 (2006).
  • Miloshevich, L. M., H. Vömel, D. N. Whiteman, B. M. Lesht, F. J. Schmidlin, and F. Russo, Absolute accuracy of water vapor measurements from six operational radiosonde types launched during AWEX-G and implications for AIRS validation, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D09S10, doi: 10.1029/2005JD006083, 2006.