Mipas Validation with the Dlr Falcon

The DLR airborne water vapour differential absorption lidar (H2O DIAL) was employed as the core instrument on board the research aircraft Falcon 20 to validate the water vapour products of MIPAS on ENVISAT. During a dedicated campaign which was co-ordinated with the high-flying aircraft M55 Geophysika the H2O DIAL measured the 2-dimensional water vapour distribution as well as aerosol properties on several flights at mid latitudes between 37N52N. Additional goals next to the validation of MIPAS was the intercomparison of the results with several of the passive remote sensing and in-situ instruments aboard the Geophysika and, if applicable, the measurement of smallscale structures in the tropopause region. Several in-situ instruments on the Falcon to measure H2O, O3, and aerosol properties contributed to this task. In this Paper, a representative overview is given about the results achieved during this validation campaign which was based in Forlí, Italy and took place in October 2002.