VALIDATION OF A UHF SPACED ANTENNA WIND PROFILER FOR HIGH-RESOLUTION BOUNDARY-LAYER OBSERVATIONS

In this paper we apply a spaced antenna technique derived from the rec ent work of Doviak et al. [1996a] and Holloway et al. [this issue] to wind measurement with a small UHF boundary layer profiler. We discuss the implementation of the technique, averaging and quality control str ategies, and some advantages and limitations of spaced antenna methods over conventional Doppler beam swinging wind profilers in the boundar y layer. Such advantages include a relaxation of the assumption of a h orizontally uniform wind field and the possibility of high temporal re solution wind profiles. In this regard we present velocity measurement s derived from this UHF system with time resolution of about 30 s and compare these measurements with in situ sonic anemometer data taken on a 300-m tower. Finally, we present an example of a high-resolution ti me-height cross section of atmospheric winds. This example, collected in stratiform precipitation, shows the intriguing situation of a wind speed maximum (jet) which closely follows the height of the melting la yer over several hours even as this height changes by several hundred meters.