Abstract. In this paper we present the preliminary results of atmospheric column integrated water vapor (PWV) obtained with a new Lunar Cimel photometer (LC) at the high mountain Izaña Observatory in the period July–August, 2011. We have compared nocturnal PWV from LC with PWV from a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver and nighttime radiosondes (RS92). LC data have been calibrated using the Lunar Langley Method (LLM). We complemented this comparative study using quasi-simultaneous daytime PWV from Cimel AERONET (CA), GPS and RS92. Comparison of daytime PWV from CA shows differences against GPS and RS92 up to 0.18 cm. Two different filters, with and approximate bandwidth of 10 nm and central wavelengths at 938 nm (Filter#1) and 937 nm (Filter#2), were mounted into the LC. Filter#1 is currently used in operational AERONET sunphotometers. PWV obtained with LC-Filter#1 showed an overestimation above 0.18 and 0.25 cm compared to GPS and RS92, respectively, meanwhile Filter#2, with a reduced out-of-band radiation, showed very low differences compared with the same references (≤0.03 cm). These results demonstrate the ability of the new lunar photometer to obtain accurate and continuous PWV measurements at night in addition to the notably influence of the filter's transmissivity response on PWV determination at nighttime. The use of enhanced bandpass filters in lunar photometry, which is affected by more important inaccuracies than sun-photometry, is necessary to infer PWV with similar precision than AERONET.
Column water vapor determination in night period with a lunar photometer prototype
