The COST 720 temperature, humidity, and cloud profiling campaign : TUC

The international COST 720 Temperature, hUmidity, and Cloud (TUC) profiling experiment was organized over three months in winter 2003/2004 at Payerne, Switzerland. Various in-situ and active/passive ground-based remote sensing systems, including three microwave radiometers, a cloud radar and a wind profiler, were operated at the same location. The experiment has delivered a dataset for ground-based remote sensing measurements of winter conditions in the lower troposphere, including fog formation, development and erosion in the boundary layer. The data are being used to test atmospheric profiling products derived from integration of the various measurements. One example is fog/low cloud top and base derived from 78 GHz frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) cloud radar and laser ceilometer measurements. The paper first describes the TUC experiment and the systems involved, including a brief analysis of the radiosoundings quality. An example is then used to show the ability of ground-based remote sensing systems to automatically determine the stratus base and top. Finally an overview of the publications related to the experiment is presented.