Sa. Cohn et Wm. Angevine, Boundary layer height and entrainment zone thickness measured by lidars and wind-profiling radars, J APPL MET, 39(8), 2000, pp. 1233-1247
The authors examine measurements of boundary layer height z(i) and entrainm
ent zone thickness observed with two lidars and with a radar wind profiler
during the Flatland96 Lidars in Flat Terrain experiment. Lidar backscatter
is proportional to aerosol content land some molecular scatter) in the boun
dary layer, and wind profiler backscatter depends on the refractive index s
tructure (moisture gradients and turbulence strength). Although these backs
catter mechanisms are very different, good agreement is found in measuremen
ts of z(i) at 1-h resolution. When the dataset is limited to daytime convec
tive conditions (times between 1000 and 1700 LT), correlation coefficients
between the profiler and each lidar are 0.87 and 0.95. Correlation between
the two lidars is 0.99. Comparisons of entrainment zone thickness show less
agreement, with correlation coefficients of about 0.6 between the profiler
and lidars and 0.8 between the two lidars. The lidar measurements of z(i)
make use of coefficients of a Haar continuous wavelet transform of the back
scatter profile. The wind profiler measurements use a standard technique. T
he wavelet transform technique is shown to provide consistent results with
lidar data at 1-s time resolution.