THE USE OF BOUNDARY LAYER WIND PROFILERS IN MOUNTAIN ENVIRONMENTS: EXPERIENCE FROM RECENT FIELD EXPERIMENTS

Boundary layer wind-profiler technology and processing have constantly improved since their introduction in the 1980s. They were first developed to fill in winds at altitudes beneath the range covered by larger, lower frequency profilers. But ground clutter from nearby terrain, buildings, and power lines, as well as moving clutter from vehicles and birds, often interfered with measurements at the lowest levels. Changes in antenna design, sensitivity, and especially signal processing (both analog and digital) have improved these profilers performance greatly, especially when sited near clutter targets such as mountains.

This presentation will discuss our experience with boundary layer wind profilers in several experiments near mountains, and show how they contribute to mountain meteorology. Examples are drawn from the Juneau, AK airport safety study, the Sierra Rotors Project in Owens Valley, CA, the Reno Basin Inversion study in Reno, NV, the Inhibition of Snowfall by Pollution Aerosols (ISPA) experiment in Steamboat Springs, CO, and the IMPROVE-2 experiment at two sites in Oregon