Seasonal Impact on Boundary Layer Heights in a Heterogeneous Landscape

ABSTRACT:

Boundary layer is a part of the troposphere, which is directly influenced by the presence of Earth's surface. The lifting condensation level (LCL) is the height at which a parcel of air becomes saturated when it is lifted adiabatically with no condensation. The Lifting Condensation Level (LCL) is known to be a good proxy for the height of the planetary boundary layer (PBL). The PBL and LCL analysis is critical due to the fact measuring air quality, understanding radiation: scattering, emission, climate changes, forecasting and satellite data, temperature changes are circuitously related with PBL. In 1948 the Donora smog an air inversion at Pennsylvania killed 20 people, and over 7000 people got sickened. The Donora smog happened because the boundary layer got close to the surface level. We would like to avoid situation like this and furthermore our study will provide how much pollution an area could handle. In this research, we used 2012 ceilometers data from Baltimore Washington, Ronald Reagan (VA), Sterling(VA), Hargestown(MD), Charlostville(VA), York(PA), Martinsburg(WV), Salisbury(MD), Georgetown(DE), Howard University(MD) stations to analysis LCL, PBL height in a heterogeneous landscape. The part of the study to reveals that lifting condensation Level (LCL) depends on temperature and dew points, increase of temperature will increase the height of the LCL and increase of dew point or the moisture in the air will decrease the height of the LCL. Future work on this study should investigate if these PBL heights are due to large-scale effects or local variations in landscape. Take particular season and notice any significant changes. Establish correlation between LCL and PBL in seasonal changes.