Ground-based remote sensing of wind vector and visibility: latest results from guideline development

Methods which are in discussion to enter a VDI guideline will be presented. Examples of application in local scale area selected. The VDI 'Richtlinie VDI 3786 Umweltmeteorologie,' is divided in many parts. Part 15 shows the remote sensing methods for visibility measurements, part 14 describes the wind profile measurements. Wind profiles in the atmospheric boundary layer yield a very important contribution also to the investigation of atmospheric exchange processes. The wind field in the atmospheric boundary layer is highly variable in spatial and temporal scales. For a few applications a more frequent wind sensing is necessary, i.e. (1) on airports located in low level jet areas, (2) near chemical plants to get information of the transport of toxic gases from leakages,(3) for meteorology in general to improve the weather forecast, (4) for environment protection purposes like dispersion studies. The following statements are valid for visibility measurements: (1) Lidar can provide the same information of the visibility as conventional sensors, but in addition lidar will provide range resolved measurements. (2) It is possible to shrink a lidar down to the size of binoculars. (3) It is possible to measure local visibility with an eye-safe (class 1) lidar. (4) Layers can be detected up to 250 m distance in approximately 2 s even with a small size instrument.