The Utilization of the Mobile Atmospheric Profiling Network (MAPNet) for A Multi-Sensor Analysis of an Daytime Atmospheric Bore

The collection of mobile profiling systems at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has had a long history of providing atmospheric boundary layer measurements via boundary layer remote sensors. Now deemed MAPNet (Mobile Atmospheric Profiling Network) and a requestable facility as part of the NSF Community Instruments and Facilities (CIF), the cluster of remote sensing platforms can provide a wide range of measurement capabilities. Home to the MAPNet, the Severe Weather Institute - Radar and Lightning Laboratory (SWIRLL) provides an ideal facility for maintaining and testing the MAPNet instruments. One key highlight of this facility is an artificial berm which provides space for the MAPNet profilers to collect atmospheric data in real time. A major benefit from having near-continuous boundary layer observations is the frequent documentation of a wide variety of atmospheric phenomena, including precipitation systems, boundary layer variability and evolution, atmospheric waves and bores.

During the late morning hours of 14 Aug 2023, an atmospheric bore propagated across the North Alabama region and was documented by the MAPNet Mobile Integrated Profiling System (MIPS), the KHTX WSR-88D radar, and GOES satellite images. With a variety of boundary layer remote sensors (915 MHz radar wind profiler, 35-channel microwave radiometer, lidar ceilometer, and Doppler sodar) in addition to high-resolution surface measurements and photography, the bore passage was very well documented in a developing, surface-based, convective boundary layer (CBL) that was 500 m deep at the time of bore passage. Bores within such environments have not been well documented in previous studies. Coincidentally, a balloon sounding, acquired as part of an outreach activity 15 minutes after bore passage, revealed a lifting of the inversion layer capping the CBL of about 500 m. A multi-sensor observational analysis of the CBL evolution and the bore structure will be presented. The documentation of this bore passage provides an overview of the measurement capabilities provided by the MAPNet platforms.