skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: A high-resolution planetary boundary layer height seasonal climatology from GNSS radio occultations

Journal Article · · Remote Sensing of Environment
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  2. Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, Capua (Italy)

We present a new seasonal planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) climatology product derived from 14 years of Global Navigation Satellite System radio occultation (GNSS-RO) data from multiple missions including COSMIC, TerraSAR-X, KOMPSAT-5, and PAZ. PBLH estimates are derived from the minimum gradients of retrieved refractivity profiles, with a vertical resolution of ~200 m. The climatology is obtained from occultations observed between June 2006 and December 2019, and is divided into land and ocean regimes on a 2-degree grid. We provide seasonal climatologies at 2-degree resolution as well as climatologies of diurnal cycle amplitude and phase at 5-degree resolution. The new GNSS PBLH climatology is compared to radiosonde data from the ship-based Marine ARM GPCI Investigation of Clouds (MAGIC) campaign in the subtropical northeast Pacific ocean and to previous GNSS PBLH climatology estimates. The higher spatial resolution reveals new details such as seasonal PBLH modulation due to sea ice off the coast of Antarctica. The PBLH product is the first publicly available at 2-degree resolution.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Data Center
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Contributing Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL); Argonne National Laboratory (ANL); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0019242; 80NM0018D0004
OSTI ID:
1866744
Journal Information:
Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 276; ISSN 0034-4257
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (29)

Dispelling Clouds of Uncertainty journal June 2015
The TerraSAR-X Mission and System Design journal February 2010
Using CHAMP radio occultation data to determine the top altitude of the Planetary Boundary Layer journal January 2005
Analysis of migrating diurnal tides detected in FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC temperature data journal January 2010
Lower troposphere refractivity bias in GPS occultation retrievals journal January 2003
The Relationships Between Cloud Top Radiative Cooling Rates, Surface Latent Heat Fluxes, and Cloud-Base Heights in Marine Stratocumulus journal October 2018
Global climatology of planetary boundary layer top obtained from multi-satellite GPS RO observations journal May 2018
Mapping GPS Radio Occultation Data by Bayesian Interpolation journal August 2012
Marine Boundary Layer Heights and Their Longitudinal, Diurnal, and Interseasonal Variability in the Southeastern Pacific Using COSMIC, CALIOP, and Radiosonde Data journal March 2015
A Planetary Boundary Layer Height Climatology Derived from ECMWF Reanalysis Data journal August 2013
The Pacific Subtropical Cloud Transition: A MAGIC Assessment of AIRS and ECMWF Thermodynamic Structure journal July 2015
Subtropical Cloud-Regime Transitions: Boundary Layer Depth and Cloud-Top Height Evolution in Models and Observations journal September 2010
Estimating climatological planetary boundary layer heights from radiosonde observations: Comparison of methods and uncertainty analysis journal January 2010
Boundary Layer Depth, Entrainment, and Decoupling in the Cloud-Capped Subtropical and Tropical Marine Boundary Layer journal September 2004
On the radio occultation method for studying planetary atmospheres journal March 1968
Rising and setting GPS occultations by use of open-loop tracking journal January 2009
Estimating Atmospheric Boundary Layer Depth Using COSMIC Radio Occultation Data journal August 2011
Canonical transform method for processing radio occultation data in the lower troposphere: CANONICAL TRANSFORM METHOD journal October 2002
A robust method to determine global distribution of atmospheric boundary layer top from COSMIC GPS RO measurements journal July 2010
Tropical and Subtropical Cloud Transitions in Weather and Climate Prediction Models: The GCSS/WGNE Pacific Cross-Section Intercomparison (GPCI) journal October 2011
The Neutral Atmosphere of Venus as Studied with the Mariner V Radio Occultation Experiments journal March 1971
The COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3 Mission: Early Results journal March 2008
Seasonal Variation of the Physical Properties of Marine Boundary Layer Clouds off the California Coast journal May 2009
Atmospheric diurnal variations observed with GPS radio occultation soundings journal January 2010
Planetary boundary layer heights from GPS radio occultation refractivity and humidity profiles: PBL HEIGHT FROM GPS RO journal August 2012
Geometrical optics phase matching of radio occultation signals: PHASE MATCHING OF OCCULTATION SIGNALS journal May 2004
Ionospheric correction of GPS radio occultation data in the troposphere journal January 2016
Monitoring the atmospheric boundary layer by GPS radio occultation signals recorded in the open-loop mode journal January 2006
Assimilation of GPS Radio Occultation Data for Numerical Weather Prediction journal January 2000

Similar Records

Diurnal Variation of the Planetary Boundary Layer Height Observed from GNSS Radio Occultation and Radiosonde Soundings over the Southern Great Plains
Journal Article · Wed Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2021 · Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology · OSTI ID:1866744

A Novel Machine Learning Algorithm for Planetary Boundary Layer Height Estimation Using AERI Measurement Data
Journal Article · Mon Apr 26 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters · OSTI ID:1866744

A comparison of North Pacific and North Atlantic subtropical mode waters in a climatologically-forced model
Journal Article · Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Deep-Sea Research. Part 2. Topical Studies in Oceanography · OSTI ID:1866744