Developing a Data Record of PBL Temperature Profiles for Diurnal Land-Atmosphere Coupling Investigations

The lower troposphere, including the planetary boundary layer (PBL), is strongly influenced by the land surface at diurnal scales. However, investigations of diurnal land-atmosphere coupling are significantly hindered by the lack of profile measurements that resolve the diurnal cycle. This study aims to bridge this gap by developing a decade-long (from 2007 to 2016) data record of diurnal temperature profiles in the lower troposphere (from the surface to about 4 km above the surface) over the CONUS, which is based on the Aircrafts Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) meteorological observations. We first identify the number of profiles in each hour for each airport within the ACARS dataset and select 57 airports that have data in at least 20% of the total hours in each year. These selected airports are mainly located along the east and west coasts, as expected. Because the data are recorded at irregular heights, we resample each profile in the lowest 4 km or so to pre-defined vertical coordinates. These temperature profiles are further bias-corrected by comparing to collocated radiosonde observations. This consistent data record of diurnal temperature profiles can be used for regional climatology research, numerical model evaluation, and land-atmosphere coupling investigations.