Remote Sensing Measurements of the CBL Structure during LAFE
Poster PDF
Authors
Marian B. Clayton — Science Systems and Applications, Inc. (SSAI)
Richard A. Ferrare — NASA - Langley Research Center
David D. Turner — NOAA- Global Systems Laboratory
Amy Jo Swanson Scarino — Science Systems and Applications, Inc.
Scott Spuler — National Center for Atmospheric Research
Matthew Hayman — National Center for Atmospheric Research
Edwin W. Eloranta — University of Wisconsin
Tobias Marke — Institute for Geophysics and Meteorology
Tim Wagner — University of Wisconsin
Rob K Newsom — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Category
Boundary layer structure, including land-atmosphere interactions and turbulence
Description
During the Land-Atmosphere Feedback Experiment (LAFE), which occurred during August 2017, several state-of-the-art lidar and remote sensing systems were deployed at SGP to study feedback processes between the land surface and the atmosphere and to provide an in-depth understanding of the Convective Boundary Layer (CBL) dependence on surface properties. A unique suite of lidar (Raman, DIAL, HSRL, Doppler) and remote sensing instruments (e.g. AERI) characterized the thermodynamic, wind, and aerosol structure within the CBL.
We use a combination of remote sensing and in situ measurements to study the diurnal behavior of the CBL during LAFE; these include Raman lidar (RLID) measurements of aerosol backscatter, water vapor mixing ratio, and temperature; University of Wisconsin High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) measurements of aerosol backscatter and aerosol depolarization, Doppler lidar (DL) measurements of horizontal wind velocity and turbulent vertical motions, DIAL measurements of water vapor and aerosol backscatter, AERI retrievals of temperature, and radiosonde temperature profiles.
We use the lidar measurements to identify sharp gradients in aerosols and water vapor to derive CBL heights. Based on comparisons with boundary layer (BL) heights derived from potential temperature profiles from radiosondes, the CBL height determined in this manner is normally a good proxy for the daytime BL height. We also compute BL heights using potential temperature profiles derived from Raman lidar and Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) measurements. We also investigate how the DL measurements of horizontal wind profile observations and vertical velocity can be used to derive BL heights and can also be combined with the RLID+AERI observations to compute the BL height via the bulk Richardson number.
