Wednesday, 23 January 2008
Comparisons of measurements of atmospheric stability from ground-based remote sensing instruments
Exhibit Hall B (Ernest N. Morial Convention Center)
A microwave radiometer was placed at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program as part of the International H2O Project (IHOP_2002). This site is home to an Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI). Both instruments are ground-based remote sensing instruments capable of retrieving temperature and moisture profiles at a temporal resolution of better than 10 minutes. Convective stability indices including Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE), Lifted Index (LI) and low level equivalent potential temperature, were calculated from these profiles and results were compared between the two instruments. The results were also compared with local radiosonde launches. The observed magnitude of these indices matches well during nighttime hours, but less so during the day. AERI observations capture more variability from one time to the next as the finer vertical resolution in the infrared band is capable of capturing more low-level moisture variabilty than the microwave radiometer can detect.
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