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

Long path optical extinction and meteorology in the San Francisco Bay Area

Conference ·
OSTI ID:5254562
Instrumentation and analysis techniques aimed at establishing the relationships between remotely sensed meteorological and visibility parameters of the atmosphere are discussed. It is shown that long and short term visibility and atmospheric extinction trends are dominated by meteorological parameters. A report is made of new instrumentation and preliminary results using these instruments to remotely sense meteorological parameters along the same light path over which light extinction measurements are made. Those atmospheric parameters affecting visibility are water vapor, NO/sub 2/, ozone, aerosol, wind speed and stability or atmospheric temperature profile with height. All of these parameters can be remotely determined for a given light path by a combination of high resolution spectrographic absorption, low resolution wavelength extinction measurements optical scintillation and stellar refraction. Remotely sensed cross-path wind speeds are presently being determined from optical scintillation techniques and remote sensing of atmospheric mixing depths are being investigated using searchlight techniques or stellar refraction inversions. (JGB)
Research Organization:
California Univ., Livermore (USA). Lawrence Livermore Lab.
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-48
OSTI ID:
5254562
Report Number(s):
UCRL-84339; CONF-801114-2
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English