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

Title: A generalised background correction algorithm for a Halo Doppler lidar and its application to data from Finland

Journal Article · · Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Online)
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Helsinki, Helsinki (Finland)
  2. Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki (Finland); Univ. of Reading, Reading (United Kingdom)
  3. Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki (Finland)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Current commercially available Doppler lidars provide an economical and robust solution for measuring vertical and horizontal wind velocities, together with the ability to provide co- and cross-polarised backscatter profiles. The high temporal resolution of these instruments allows turbulent properties to be obtained from studying the variation in radial velocities. However, the instrument specifications mean that certain characteristics, especially the background noise behaviour, become a limiting factor for the instrument sensitivity in regions where the aerosol load is low. Turbulent calculations require an accurate estimate of the contribution from velocity uncertainty estimates, which are directly related to the signal-to-noise ratio. Any bias in the signal-to-noise ratio will propagate through as a bias in turbulent properties. In this paper we present a method to correct for artefacts in the background noise behaviour of commercially available Doppler lidars and reduce the signal-to-noise ratio threshold used to discriminate between noise, and cloud or aerosol signals. We show that, for Doppler lidars operating continuously at a number of locations in Finland, the data availability can be increased by as much as 50 % after performing this background correction and subsequent reduction in the threshold. Furthermore the reduction in bias also greatly improves subsequent calculations of turbulent properties in weak signal regimes.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Helsinki, Helsinki (Finland). Dept. of Physics
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
1375419
Journal Information:
Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Online), Vol. 9, Issue 2; ISSN 1867-8548
Publisher:
European Geosciences UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 30 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (20)

Aerosol-cloud semi-direct effect and land-sea temperature contrast in a GCM: AEROSOL EFFECT ON CLOUDS journal April 2010
Aerosol decadal trends – Part 2: In-situ aerosol particle number concentrations at GAW and ACTRIS stations journal January 2013
Robust direct effect of carbon dioxide on tropical circulation and regional precipitation journal April 2013
Aerosol decadal trends – Part 1: In-situ optical measurements at GAW and IMPROVE stations journal January 2013
Detection of Influential Observation in Linear Regression journal February 1977
Surface-based remote sensing of the mixing-layer height a review [Surface-based remote sensing of the mixing-layer height a review] journal October 2008
A method to diagnose boundary-layer type using Doppler lidar: A Method to Diagnose Boundary-Layer Type
  • Harvey, Natalie J.; Hogan, Robin J.; Dacre, Helen F.
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 139, Issue 676 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.2068
journal January 2013
Observing wind, aerosol particles, cloud and precipitation: Finland's new ground-based remote-sensing network journal January 2014
The Hat Matrix in Regression and ANOVA journal February 1978
Sensitivity studies of different aerosol indirect effects in mixed-phase clouds journal January 2009
A Method for Estimating the Turbulent Kinetic Energy Dissipation Rate from a Vertically Pointing Doppler Lidar, and Independent Evaluation from Balloon-Borne In Situ Measurements journal October 2010
An assessment of the performance of a 1.5 μm Doppler lidar for operational vertical wind profiling based on a 1-year trial journal January 2015
An Analysis of the Performance of the UFAM Pulsed Doppler Lidar for Observing the Boundary Layer journal February 2009
Remote sensing of the tropical rain forest boundary layer using pulsed Doppler lidar journal January 2010
Discrete spectral peak estimation in incoherent backscatter heterodyne lidar. I. Spectral accumulation and the Cramer-Rao lower bound journal January 1993
Low-level mixing height detection in coastal locations with a scanning Doppler lidar journal January 2015
Can the direct and semi-direct aerosol effect compete with the indirect effect on a global scale? journal January 2001
The Hat Matrix in Regression and ANOVA journal February 1978
Aerosol decadal trends – Part 1: In-situ optical measurements at GAW and IMPROVE stations journal January 2012
Surface-based remote sensing of the mixing-layer height - a review text January 2008

Cited By (12)

MEMS-based lidar for autonomous driving journal July 2018
Atmospheric Boundary Layer Classification With Doppler Lidar journal August 2018
Wind Gust Measurement Techniques—From Traditional Anemometry to New Possibilities journal April 2018
Carrier-to-Noise-Threshold Filtering on Off-Shore Wind Lidar Measurements journal January 2019
Long-term measurements of volatile organic compounds highlight the importance of sesquiterpenes for the atmospheric chemistry of a boreal forest journal January 2018
A novel post-processing algorithm for Halo Doppler lidars journal January 2019
Recommendations for processing atmospheric attenuated backscatter profiles from Vaisala CL31 ceilometers journal January 2016
Lidar observations of atmospheric internal waves in the boundary layer of the atmosphere on the coast of Lake Baikal journal January 2016
Methodology for obtaining wind gusts using Doppler lidar: Wind Gust Measurements Using Doppler Lidar
  • Suomi, Irene; Gryning, Sven-Erik; O'Connor, Ewan J.
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 143, Issue 706 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3059
journal June 2017
Low-Level Jets over Utö, Finland, Based on Doppler Lidar Observations journal September 2017
Methodology for deriving the telescope focus function and its uncertainty for a heterodyne pulsed Doppler lidar journal January 2020
LiSBOA (LiDAR Statistical Barnes Objective Analysis) for optimal design of lidar scans and retrieval of wind statistics – Part 1: Theoretical framework journal March 2021

Similar Records

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES