It has been developed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The mobile trailer contains their Raman Airborne Spectroscopic Lidar (RASL) which has demonstrated the ability to measure water vapor mixing ratio, aerosol backscatter/extinction/depolarization both daytime and nighttime. ALVICE participated in the MOHAVE-II (Measurements of Humidity in the Atmosphere: Validation Experiments) at the Table Mountain Facility of JPL between October 4 - 17, 2007. The purpose of this experiment was to validate the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere measurements of the permanently stationed JPL Raman Water Vapor Lidar. During MOHAVE-II, ALVICE has shown its ability to measure water vapor mixing ratio into the upper troposphere and beyond.

It is is a combined Rayleigh-Mie, rotational Raman, and vibrational lidar, with the instrumentation installed in a mobile trailer. Three wavelengths are transmitted from a high-power, injection-seeded Nd-YAG laser at 1064, 532 and 355 nm. 
Temperature is retrieved using three different techniques for different altitude regions. Vertical profiles of aerosol backscatter and microphysical properties can be retrieved from the ratio of the elastic backscatter and the Raman backscattered returns. The elastic signal contains both molecular and aerosol backscatter signals, while the Raman return contains only molecular scattering. The Raman signal can be normalized to the elastic signal in a region where aerosols are negligible and the ratio is equal to one.
Water vapour is a recent addition to the vertical profiles retrieved by this instrument. This is achieved from the ratio of backscattered return signals at 407 nm (Raman scattered from H₂O), and 387 (Raman scattered from N₂). Since 407 represents the concentration of water vapour in the atmosphere, and the 387nm return is representative of the atmospheric density as a whole, the ratio of these two signals can be calibrated to yield the mixing ratio of water vapour in the atmosphere. This measurement is a new one within the NDACC and is not yet archived. Click here to read more on AT.

The instrument retrieves ozone, temperature, aerosol backscatter ratio and microphysical properties. Since recently, it is also capable of retrieving water vapour. The primary purpose of the STROZ Lidar within the NDACC is to be a mobile calibration transfer standard among NDACC sites which are capable of receiving the 40’ container. The STROZ Lidar has participated in numerous campaigns at Ny Alesund, Sodankyla, Hohenpeissenberg, Observatoire de Haute Provence, Greenbelt, Cannon AFB, Table Mountain, Mauna Loa and Lauder. Click here to read more about STROZ.