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The Planetary Boundary Layer Height (PBLH) significantly impacts weather, climate, and air quality. Understanding the global diurnal variation of the PBLH is particularly challenging due to the necessity of extensive observations and suitable retrieval algorithms that can adapt to diverse thermodynamic and dynamic conditions. This study utilized data from the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) to analyze the diurnal variation of PBLH in both continental and marine regions. By leveraging CATS data and a modified version of the Different Thermo-Dynamics Stability (DTDS) algorithm, along with machine learning denoising, the study determined the diurnal variation of the PBLH in continental mid-latitude and marine regions. The CATS DTDS-PBLH closely matches ground-based lidar and radiosonde measurements at the continental sites, with correlation coefficients above 0.6 and well-aligned diurnal variability, although slightly overestimated at nighttime. In contrast, PBLH at the marine site was consistently overestimated due to the viewing geometry of CATS and complex cloud structures. The study emphasizes the importance of integrating meteorological data with lidar signals for accurate and robust PBLH estimations, which are essential for effective boundary layer assessment from satellite observations.
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Planetary boundary layer height retrieval from a diode-laser-based high spectral resolution lidar
The planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) is an essential parameter for weather forecasting and climate modeling. The primary methods for obtaining the PBLH include radiosonde measurements of atmospheric parameters and lidar measurements, which track aerosol layers in the lower atmosphere. Radiosondes provide the parameters to determine the PBLH but cannot monitor changes over a diurnal cycle. Lidar instruments can track the temporal variability of the PBLH and account for spatial variability when operated in a network configuration. The networkable micropulse DIAL (MPD) instruments for thermodynamic profiling are based on diode-laser technology that is eye-safe and cost-effective and has demonstrated long-term autonomous operation. We present a retrieval algorithm for determining the PBLH from the quantitative aerosol profiling capability of the high spectral resolution channel of the MPD. The PBLH is determined using a Haar wavelet transform (HWT) method that tracks aerosol layers in the lower atmosphere. The PBLH from the lidar is compared with the PBLH determined from potential temperature profiles from radiosondes. In many cases, good agreement among the PBLH retrievals was seen. However, the radiosonde retrieval often missed the lowest inversion layer when several layers were present, while the HWT could track the lowest layer.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1917851
- PAR ID:
- 10354840
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of applied remote sensing
- Volume:
- 16
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 1931-3195
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 024507
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JRS.16.024507
