Probing near-surface atmospheric turbulence with high-resolution lidar measurements and models

[1] Lidar technology provides fast data collection at a resolution of meters in a three-dimensional atmospheric volume. A modeling counterpart of this lidar capability can greatly enhance our understanding of near-surface atmospheric turbulence. This paper describes an integrated research capability on the basis of data from a scanning water vapor lidar and a high-resolution hydrodynamic model (HIGRAD) equipped with a visualization routine (VIEWER) which simulates the lidar scanning. The purpose is to better understand the degree to which the lidar measurements represent faithfully the spatial and temporal features of the atmospheric boundary layer and to extend the utility of the measurements in studying turbulent fields in this layer. Raman lidar water vapor data collected over the Pacific warm pool and the HIGRAD simulations thereof are first compared with each other. The results are then used to identify the potential aliasing effects of lidar measurements due to the relatively long duration of the lidar scanning. This integrated lidar-model capability also helps improve the trade-off between the spatial and the temporal resolution of the lidar measurements on the one hand and their coverage on the other.

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