Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Boundary Layer Structures Over the Northwest Atlantic Derived From Airborne High Spectral Resolution Lidar and Dropsonde Measurements During the ACTIVATE Campaign

Journal Article · · Journal of Geophysical Research. Atmospheres
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2023jd039878· OSTI ID:2453860
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [1];  [3] more »;  [4];  [5];  [1];  [6] « less
  1. Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)
  2. NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States); Analytical Mechanics Associates, Inc., Hampton, VA (United States)
  3. NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)
  4. German Aerospace Center (DLR), Wessling (Germany); Johannes Gutenberg Univ., Mainz (Germany)
  5. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  6. Univ. of Miami, FL (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
The Planetary Boundary Layer height (PBLH) is essential for studying PBL and ocean-atmosphere interactions. Marine PBL is usually defined to include a mixed layer (ML) and a capping inversion layer. The ML height (MLH) estimated from the measurements of aerosol backscatter by a lidar was usually compared with PBLH determined from radiosondes/dropsondes in the past, as the PBLH is usually similar to MLH in nature. However, PBLH can be much greater than MLH for decoupled PBL. Here, in this study, we evaluate the retrieved MLH from an airborne lidar (HSRL-2) by utilizing 506 co-located dropsondes during the ACTIVATE field campaign over the Northwest Atlantic from 2020 to 2022. First, we define and determine the MLH and PBLH from the temperature and humidity profiles of each dropsonde, and find that the MLH values from HSRL-2 and dropsondes agree well with each other, with a coefficient of determination of 0.66 and median difference of 18 m. In contrast, the HSRL-2 MLH data do not correspond to dropsonde-derived PBLH, with a median difference of -47 m. Therefore, we modify the current operational and automated HSRL-2 wavelet-based algorithm for PBLH retrieval, decreasing the median difference significantly to -8 m. Further data analysis indicates that these conclusions remain the same for cases with higher or lower cloud fractions, and for decoupled PBLs. These results demonstrate the potential of using HSRL-2 aerosol backscatter data to estimate both marine MLH and PBLH and suggest that lidar-derived MLH should be compared with radiosonde/dropsonde-determined MLH (not PBLH) in general.
Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
2453860
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA--189948
Journal Information:
Journal of Geophysical Research. Atmospheres, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research. Atmospheres Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 129; ISSN 2169-897X
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union; WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (10)

Bay Breeze and Sea Breeze Circulation Impacts on the Planetary Boundary Layer and Air Quality From an Observed and Modeled DISCOVER‐AQ Texas Case Study journal July 2019
Re‐Evaluation of Low Cloud Amount Relationships With Lower‐Tropospheric Stability and Estimated Inversion Strength journal June 2022
Aircraft Observations of Turbulence in Cloudy and Cloud‐Free Boundary Layers Over the Western North Atlantic Ocean From ACTIVATE and Implications for the Earth System Model Evaluation and Development journal September 2022
NASA Incubation Study on Planetary Boundary Layer conference September 2020
Stratocumulus Cloud-Top Height Estimates and Their Climatic Implications journal September 2009
CALIPSO Lidar Description and Performance Assessment journal July 2009
Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer Height over the Eastern Pacific: Data Analysis and Model Evaluation journal November 2004
Airborne High Spectral Resolution Lidar for profiling aerosol optical properties journal January 2008
Planetary Boundary Layer Height Estimates From ICESat-2 and CATS Backscatter Measurements journal September 2021
Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western ATlantic Experiment Data dataset January 2020

Figures / Tables (11)

Figure 1(p. 5)figure Figure 1
Figure 2(p. 6)figure Figure 2
Figure 3(p. 7)figure Figure 3
Figure 4(p. 9)figure Figure 4
Figure 5(p. 10)figure Figure 5
Figure 6(p. 12)figure Figure 6
Table 1(p. 12)table Table 1
Figure 7(p. 13)figure Figure 7
Figure 8(p. 14)figure Figure 8
Figure 9(p. 15)figure Figure 9
Table 2(p. 16)table Table 2

Similar Records

ARM SGP PBLH and MLH datasets from Raman lidar and Doppler lidar
Dataset · Thu Oct 02 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · OSTI ID:2997130
Characterizing warm atmospheric boundary layer over land by combining Raman and Doppler lidar measurements
Journal Article · Fri Mar 25 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Optics Express · OSTI ID:1856579

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES