Urban and Rural Boundary Layer Characteristics Assessed From Ceilometer Observations

Laser ceilometers have been deployed operationally in the United State primarily to assess cloud base heights. Increasingly, the high-temporal resolution of the aerosol backscatter observations are being used for boundary layer research during field campaigns. Continuous monitoring at fixed locations is also becoming more common. Continuous monitoring over several years will be contrasted for three sites located in the northern portion of Utah: an urban environment in Salt Lake City; a small city/agricultural area in Logan; and a rural location embedded in the natural gas and oil fields of the Uinta Basin. Real-time displays of aerosol backscatter from these sites is available at https://asn.synopticdata.com/vis/time-height/. Variations in the aerosol backscatter profiles at the three sites are contrasted during stable boundary layer episodes during winter as well as convective boundary layers during summer. The depth of the aerosol layer as a function of time of day, season, and location are estimated.