Planetary Boundary Layer Reading Efficiency between Radiosondes and Ceilometers

Planetary boundary layer depth shows how high ground-induced friction influences the atmosphere. Understanding the depth of the planetary boundary layer is paramount to studying various important things. These things include incoming and developing weather, air pollution, turbulence, and more. Measuring how deep the planetary boundary layer is could be done in a few ways. As far as this study goes, weather balloons (radiosondes) and ceilometer data (from HU@Beltsville) were used. Weather balloon graphs yield exactly where the planetary boundary layer is, while ceilometer data for planetary boundary layer depth is based on an assumption and estimation. Since ceilometers can be ran 24/7 and weather balloon launches are finite, if we can rely on ceilometer data to retrieve planetary boundary layer height reliably, it would be better due to there being more usable data. The purpose of this study is to compare the two sources of data and determine ceilometer efficiency. We focused solely on the daytime balloon launches. Analyzing the differences between corresponding planetary boundary layer depth readings yielded an error of -1.73%. In the end, the error isn’t nearly inaccurate, but it is important to note that the ceilometer does have flaws.