Any meteorologist or weather buff should be interested to find out that the Swiss started using LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) to measure the distribution of humidity though out the atmosphere. The Swiss are the only people that currently have this type of ground based LIDAR technology, which is capable of providing real time data, about humidity and particulate levels, to forecast.

It works by firing a laser beam vertically into the atmosphere about thirty times a second, then measuring the “echo” that it gets back. This is very similar to the way that current RADAR systems analyze the atmosphere. With three main differences being the type of beam transmitted, the angle and the purpose. The researchers hope that by 2010 they will be able to build 3D temperature profiles.

This is a wonderful breakthrough for the field of meteorology because it is going to allow for forecasts that are more precise. With the current technology, including weather balloons, you are only able to get a vertical profile of the atmosphere a few times a day, from certain locations, and the profiles can take up to twenty minutes to complete. Where the LIDAR technology can produce a complete atmospheric profile almost instantly, allowing for more frequent measurements.

The only real downfall that with this technology is the fact that it can only be used two-thirds of the time. This is because the laser beam cannot pass through rain, snow, or low cloud cover. Even with this limitation, the use of LIDAR will drastically improve weather, because with the sensitivity of this a meteorologist will be able to pin point any dry or moist level in real time. This can mean a big difference between if it is going to rain or be sunny.

 As is with the case of almost all technologies in the field of meteorology, they do not intend for LIDAR to replace any currently technologies. It is merely a complement to the existing remote-sensing and measuring technologies. 

Currently the United States uses LIDAR systems situated on Satellites to measure vertical wind profiles along with several other factors that affect the weather. The implantation of this information into the data that meteorologists have to work with has allowed for Numerical Weather Prediction and long term forecasting improvements. Both the Americans and Swiss have done much research into different uses for LIDAR systems and the practicability of using these for forecasting.