LOTOS (Lower Troposphere Observing System): A Community Suite of Profiling Radars, Lidars, and Other Sensors for Atmospheric Research

To support Earth System science community needs for enhanced thermodynamic profiling and land-atmosphere exchange process measurements, a proposal is being developed to create the Lower Troposphere Observing System. LOTOS is designed to collect measurements: i) to study physical processes in the atmospheric surface layer, boundary layer and lower troposphere; ii) to study the coupling between the atmosphere and the underlying land surface, and iii) to be assimilated into numerical models for a variety of weather forecasting, surface flux representation and hydrological applications.

LOTOS will consist of an integrated instrumentation platform designed to provide remotely-sensed profiles of winds, temperature, moisture, clouds and aerosols; in situ measurements of turbulence and surface fluxes; near-surface profiles of meteorological parameters and greenhouse gasses. LOTOS will be modular and flexible to meet the scientific objectives of the investigators. A proposed configuration includes up to five profiling nodes with (i) radars such as the UHF Modular Wind Profilers and Ka-band vertically pointing cloud radars, (ii) lidars such as Doppler wind lidars and micropulse DIAL (DIfferential Absorption Lidar: MPD to profile water vapor, temperature and aerosols), (iii) passive profilers such as the ASSIST-II infrared spectrometer, and supporting instrumentation such as radiosondes, UAS, GPS water vapor sensors, all embedded in a network of surface flux stations. A key feature will be the integration of measurements into unified datasets, plus tools to enable users to readily use and analyze the data, and provide for assimilation into numerical models.

LOTOS is envisaged as a community effort with interested universities, agencies and industry partners. It will be available to the wider community for a broad range of scientific applications, including but not limited to, microscale and mesoscale meteorology, microphysics, hydrology, urban meteorology, wind energy, biogeochemistry and fire meteorology.