Elastic backscatter lidar observations of a gust front passage over Washington DC on 7 May 2004

The NCAR REAL (www.lidar.ucar.edu) was deployed in Washington D.C. in May of 2004 as part of the Pentagon Shield Field Program. On the 7th of May, a gust front moved across the region from the NE to SW. During this time, the REAL was collecting horizontal sector scans over the Pentagon and the downtown District of Columbia. The arrival and passage of the front is a dramatic event in the lidar data. Time-lapse animation reveals light and variable motions ahead of the front and a strong NE flow in the outflow airmass. A detailed analysis of the event will be presented.