Detection of Aerosol and Cloud Layers Using Wind Doppler Lidars in the New York State Mesonet Profiler Network

Atmospheric features such as aerosols and clouds play an important role in weather, air quality, and climate, and the accurate detection and characterization of these features is significant for accurately monitoring and predicting planetary boundary layer (PBL) processes and dynamics. In this regard, ground-based wind Doppler Lidars, as deployed in the New York State Mesonet (NYSM) Profiler Network, can be a valuable tool because of their capability to continuously provide kinematics and aerosols data at high temporal and vertical resolutions. The NYSM Profiler Network operates 17 sites (http://www.nysmesonet.org/networks/profiler); each profiler site is comprised of a wind Doppler Lidar (WDL) and microwave radiometer (MWR). The WDL provides the vertical profiles of 3D wind speed and direction and backscatter data in terms of Carrier-to-Noise (CNR) every ~10s from 100 m to 7 km AGL (current configuration). The MWR provides the vertical profiles of temperature and humidity every ~2 min from the surface to 10 km AGL. The primary goal of this study is to demonstrate a reliable automated detection of aerosol/cloud layers with continuous monitoring of the PBL height can be done satisfactorily using the WDL data. This presentation will review a variety of lidar techniques such as gradient, variance, and the wavelet covariance technique for aerosol/cloud detection and PBL height monitoring. Some illustrative examples will be discussed to show the performance of the WDL and its limitations. A comparative analysis of WDL-derived cloud base height with the ASOS and the City College of New York (CCNY) ceilometers and MWR-derived cloud information will also be presented. Overall, the results from this study demonstrate the robustness and capability of the WDL for real-time observation and monitoring of the PBL.