Articles | Volume 15, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1185-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1185-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
08 Mar 2022
Research article |
| 08 Mar 2022
| 08 Mar 2022
Low-level buoyancy as a tool to understand boundary layer transitions
Francesca M. Lappin
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations, National Weather Center, Norman, OK, USA
Tyler M. Bell
Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations, National Weather Center, Norman, OK, USA
NOAA/OAR National Severe Storms Laboratory, National Weather Center, Norman, OK, USA
Elizabeth A. Pillar-Little
School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations, National Weather Center, Norman, OK, USA
Phillip B. Chilson
School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
Advanced Radar Research Center, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
Related authors
Francesca Lappin, Gijs de Boer, Petra Klein, Jonathan Hamilton, Michelle Spencer, Radiance Calmer, Antonio R. Segales, Michael Rhodes, Tyler M. Bell, Justin Buchli, Kelsey Britt, Elizabeth Asher, Isaac Medina, Brian Butterworth, Leia Otterstatter, Madison Ritsch, Bryony Puxley, Angelina Miller, Arianna Jordan, Ceu Gomez-Faulk, Elizabeth Smith, Steve Borenstein, Troy Thornberry, Brian Argrow, and Elizabeth Pillar-Little
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-371, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-371, 2023
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
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This article provides an overview of the lower atmospheric dataset collected by two uncrewed aerial systems near the Gulf of Mexico coastline south of Houston, TX, USA, as a part of the TRACER campaign. The data were collected through boundary layer transitions, sea breeze circulations, and in the pre- and near-storm environment to understand how these processes influence the coastal environment.
Elizabeth A. Pillar-Little, Brian R. Greene, Francesca M. Lappin, Tyler M. Bell, Antonio R. Segales, Gustavo Britto Hupsel de Azevedo, William Doyle, Sai Teja Kanneganti, Daniel D. Tripp, and Phillip B. Chilson
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 269–280, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-269-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-269-2021, 2021
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During July 2018, researchers from OU participated in the LAPSE-RATE field campaign in San Luis Valley, Colorado. The OU team completed 180 flights using three RPASs over the course of 6 d of operation to collect vertical profiles of the thermodynamic and kinematic state of the ABL. This article describes sampling strategies, data collection, platform intercomparibility, data quality, and the dataset's possible applications to convective initiation, drainage flows, and ABL transitions.
Francesca Lappin, Gijs de Boer, Petra Klein, Jonathan Hamilton, Michelle Spencer, Radiance Calmer, Antonio R. Segales, Michael Rhodes, Tyler M. Bell, Justin Buchli, Kelsey Britt, Elizabeth Asher, Isaac Medina, Brian Butterworth, Leia Otterstatter, Madison Ritsch, Bryony Puxley, Angelina Miller, Arianna Jordan, Ceu Gomez-Faulk, Elizabeth Smith, Steve Borenstein, Troy Thornberry, Brian Argrow, and Elizabeth Pillar-Little
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-371, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-371, 2023
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
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This article provides an overview of the lower atmospheric dataset collected by two uncrewed aerial systems near the Gulf of Mexico coastline south of Houston, TX, USA, as a part of the TRACER campaign. The data were collected through boundary layer transitions, sea breeze circulations, and in the pre- and near-storm environment to understand how these processes influence the coastal environment.
James B. Duncan Jr., Laura Bianco, Bianca Adler, Tyler Bell, Irina V. Djalalova, Laura Riihimaki, Joseph Sedlar, Elizabeth N. Smith, David D. Turner, Timothy J. Wagner, and James M. Wilczak
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2479–2502, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2479-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2479-2022, 2022
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In this study, several ground-based remote sensing instruments are used to estimate the height of the convective planetary boundary layer, and their performance is compared against independent boundary layer depth estimates obtained from radiosondes launched as part of the CHEESEHEAD19 field campaign. The impact of clouds (particularly boundary layer clouds) on the estimation of the boundary layer depth is also investigated.
Miguel Sanchez Gomez, Julie K. Lundquist, Petra M. Klein, and Tyler M. Bell
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 3539–3549, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3539-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3539-2021, 2021
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In July 2018, the International Society for Atmospheric Research using Remotely-piloted Aircraft (ISARRA) hosted a flight week to demonstrate unmanned aircraft systems' capabilities in sampling the atmospheric boundary layer. Three Doppler lidars were deployed during this week-long experiment. We use data from these lidars to estimate turbulence dissipation rate. We observe large temporal variability and significant differences in dissipation for lidars with different sampling techniques.
Tyler M. Bell, Petra M. Klein, Julie K. Lundquist, and Sean Waugh
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 1041–1051, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1041-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1041-2021, 2021
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In July 2018, numerous weather sensing remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPASs) were flown in a flight week called Lower Atmospheric Process Studies at Elevation – a Remotely-piloted Aircraft Team Experiment (LAPSE-RATE). As part of LAPSE-RATE, ground-based remote and in situ systems were also deployed to supplement and enhance observations from the RPASs. These instruments include multiple Doppler lidars, thermodynamic profilers, and radiosondes. This paper describes data from these systems.
Elizabeth A. Pillar-Little, Brian R. Greene, Francesca M. Lappin, Tyler M. Bell, Antonio R. Segales, Gustavo Britto Hupsel de Azevedo, William Doyle, Sai Teja Kanneganti, Daniel D. Tripp, and Phillip B. Chilson
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 269–280, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-269-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-269-2021, 2021
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During July 2018, researchers from OU participated in the LAPSE-RATE field campaign in San Luis Valley, Colorado. The OU team completed 180 flights using three RPASs over the course of 6 d of operation to collect vertical profiles of the thermodynamic and kinematic state of the ABL. This article describes sampling strategies, data collection, platform intercomparibility, data quality, and the dataset's possible applications to convective initiation, drainage flows, and ABL transitions.
Gijs de Boer, Adam Houston, Jamey Jacob, Phillip B. Chilson, Suzanne W. Smith, Brian Argrow, Dale Lawrence, Jack Elston, David Brus, Osku Kemppinen, Petra Klein, Julie K. Lundquist, Sean Waugh, Sean C. C. Bailey, Amy Frazier, Michael P. Sama, Christopher Crick, David Schmale III, James Pinto, Elizabeth A. Pillar-Little, Victoria Natalie, and Anders Jensen
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 3357–3366, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3357-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3357-2020, 2020
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This paper provides an overview of the Lower Atmospheric Profiling Studies at Elevation – a Remotely-piloted Aircraft Team Experiment (LAPSE-RATE) field campaign, held from 14 to 20 July 2018. This field campaign spanned a 1-week deployment to Colorado's San Luis Valley, involving over 100 students, scientists, engineers, pilots, and outreach coordinators. This overview paper provides insight into the campaign for a special issue focused on the datasets collected during LAPSE-RATE.
Tyler M. Bell, Brian R. Greene, Petra M. Klein, Matthew Carney, and Phillip B. Chilson
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 3855–3872, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3855-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3855-2020, 2020
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It is well known that the atmospheric boundary layer is under-sampled in the vertical dimension. Recently, weather-sensing uncrewed aerial systems (WxUAS) have created new opportunities to sample this region of the atmosphere. This study compares a WxUAS developed at the University of Oklahoma to ground-based remote sensing and radiosondes. We find that overall the systems generally agreed well both thermodynamically and kinematically. However, there is still room to improve each system.
Antonio R. Segales, Brian R. Greene, Tyler M. Bell, William Doyle, Joshua J. Martin, Elizabeth A. Pillar-Little, and Phillip B. Chilson
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 2833–2848, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2833-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2833-2020, 2020
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The CopterSonde is an unmanned aircraft system designed with the purpose of sampling thermodynamic and kinematic parameters of the lower Earth's atmosphere, with a focus on vertical profiles in the planetary boundary layer. By incorporating adaptive sampling techniques and optimizing the sensor placement, our study shows that CopterSonde can provide similar information as a radiosonde, but with more control of its sampling location at much higher temporal and spatial resolution.
Tyler M. Bell, Petra Klein, Norman Wildmann, and Robert Menke
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 1357–1371, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1357-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1357-2020, 2020
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This study investigates the utility of using multi-Doppler retrievals during the Perdigão 2017 campaign. By combining scans from the multitude of Doppler lidars, it was possible to derive virtual towers that greatly extend the range of traditional in situ meteorological towers. Uncertainties from the measurements are analyzed and discussed. Despite multiple sources of error, it was found that the virtual towers are useful for analyzing the complex flows observed during the campaign.
Timothy A. Bonin, Jennifer F. Newman, Petra M. Klein, Phillip B. Chilson, and Sonia Wharton
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 5833–5852, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5833-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5833-2016, 2016
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Turbulence measurements are important to boundary layer meteorology and related fields. Doppler lidars are capable of providing continuous profiles of turbulence statistics. Herein, the most direct turbulence measurement, vertical velocity variance, is validated with those from sonic anemometers. Spectra are also compared. A method of calculating velocity variance using the autocovariance is shown to improve the accuracy of the measurement by mitigating effects of noise and averaging.
Jennifer F. Newman, Petra M. Klein, Sonia Wharton, Ameya Sathe, Timothy A. Bonin, Phillip B. Chilson, and Andreas Muschinski
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 1993–2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1993-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1993-2016, 2016
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Remote sensing devices known as lidars are often used to take measurements at potential wind farm sites. These instruments are however not optimized for measuring turbulence, small-scale changes in wind speed. In this manuscript, the impact of lidar configurations and atmospheric conditions on turbulence accuracy is explored. A new method was developed to correct lidar turbulence measurements and is described in detail such that other lidar users can apply it to their own instruments.
T. A. Bonin, P. B. Chilson, B. S. Zielke, P. M. Klein, and J. R. Leeman
Geosci. Instrum. Method. Data Syst., 2, 177–187, https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-2-177-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-2-177-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Others (Wind, Precipitation, Temperature, etc.) | Technique: In Situ Measurement | Topic: Data Processing and Information Retrieval
Hybrid instrument network optimization for air quality monitoring
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Adjustment of 1 min rain gauge time series using co-located drop size distribution and wind speed measurements
Hailstorm Events in the Central Andes of Peru: Insights from Historical Data and Radar Microphysics
Estimating turbulent energy flux vertical profiles from uncrewed aircraft system measurements: exemplary results for the MOSAiC campaign
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Estimates of the spatially complete, observational-data-driven planetary boundary layer height over the contiguous United States
Detection of turbulence occurrences from temperature, pressure, and position measurements under superpressure balloons
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Raindrop size distribution (DSD) during the passage of tropical cyclone Nivar: effect of measuring principle and wind on DSDs and retrieved rain integral and polarimetric parameters from impact and laser disdrometers
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This research focuses on the optimal placement of hybrid instruments (sensors and monitors) to maximize satisfaction function considering population, PM2.5 concentration, budget, and other factors. Two algorithms are developed in this study: a genetic algorithm and a greedy algorithm. We tested these algorithms on various regions. The insights of this work aid in quantitative placement of air quality monitoring instruments in large cities, moving away from ad hoc approaches.
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We present a data set of high-precision surface air pressure observations and a method for detecting wave signals from the time series of pressure. A wavelet-based method is used to find wave signals at specific times and wave periods. From networks of pressure sensors spaced tens of kilometers apart, the wave phase speed and direction are estimated. Examples of wave events and their meteorological context are shown using radar data, weather balloon data, and other surface weather observations.
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Adjustments for the wind-induced bias of traditional rainfall gauges are applied to data from the Hong Kong Observatory using numerical simulation results. An optical disdrometer allows us to infer the collection efficiency of the rainfall gauge. Due to the local climatology, adjustments are limited but result in a significant amount of available freshwater resources that would be missing from the calculated hydrological budget of the region should the adjustments be neglected.
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In this study, we explored hailstorms in the central Andes of Peru. We used historical records and radar measurement to understand the frequency, timing, and characteristics of these hail events. Our research found a trend of decreasing hail frequency, probably due to anthropogenic climate change. Understanding these weather patterns is critical for local communities, as it can help improve weather forecasts and manage risks related to these potentially destructive events.
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This paper describes how measurements from a small uncrewed aircraft system can be used to estimate the vertical turbulent heat energy exchange between different layers in the atmosphere. This is particularly important for the atmosphere in the Arctic, as turbulent exchange in this region is often suppressed but is still important to understand how the atmosphere interacts with sea ice. We present three case studies from the MOSAiC field campaign in Arctic sea ice in 2020.
Jianbin Zhang, Zexia Duan, Shaohui Zhou, Yubin Li, and Zhiqiu Gao
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2197–2207, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2197-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2197-2023, 2023
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In this paper, we used a random forest model to fill the observation gaps of the fluxes measured during 2015–2019. We found that the net radiation was the most important input variable. And we justified the reliability of the model. Further, it was revealed that the model performed better after relative humidity was removed from the input. Lastly, we compared the results of the model with those of three other machine learning models, and we found that the model outperformed all of them.
Jinwook Lee, Jongyun Byun, Jongjin Baik, Changhyun Jun, and Hyeon-Joon Kim
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 707–725, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-707-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-707-2023, 2023
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Our study addresses raindrop size distribution and rain rate by extracting rain streaks using a k-nearest-neighbor-based algorithm, estimating rainfall intensity using raindrop size distribution based on physical optics analysis, and verifying the estimated raindrop size distribution using a disdrometer. Experimentation demonstrated the possibility of estimating an image-based raindrop size distribution and rain rate obtained based on such low-cost equipment in dark conditions.
Zolal Ayazpour, Shiqi Tao, Dan Li, Amy Jo Scarino, Ralph E. Kuehn, and Kang Sun
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 563–580, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-563-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-563-2023, 2023
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Accurate knowledge of the planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) is essential to study air pollution. However, PBLH observations are sparse in space and time, and PBLHs used in atmospheric models are often inaccurate. Using PBLH observations from the Aircraft Meteorological DAta Relay (AMDAR), we present a machine learning framework to produce a spatially complete PBLH product over the contiguous US that shows a better agreement with reference PBLH observations than commonly used PBLH products.
Richard Wilson, Clara Pitois, Aurélien Podglajen, Albert Hertzog, Milena Corcos, and Riwal Plougonven
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 311–330, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-311-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-311-2023, 2023
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Strateole-2 is an French–US initiative designed to study atmospheric events in the tropical upper troposphere–lower stratosphere. In this work, data from several superpressure balloons, capable of staying aloft at an altitude of 18–20 km for over 3 months, were used. The present article describes methods to detect the occurrence of atmospheric turbulence – one efficient process impacting the properties of the atmosphere composition via stirring and mixing.
Norbert Pirk, Kristoffer Aalstad, Sebastian Westermann, Astrid Vatne, Alouette van Hove, Lena Merete Tallaksen, Massimo Cassiani, and Gabriel Katul
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 7293–7314, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-7293-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-7293-2022, 2022
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In this study, we show how sparse and noisy drone measurements can be combined with an ensemble of turbulence-resolving wind simulations to estimate uncertainty-aware surface energy exchange. We demonstrate the feasibility of this drone data assimilation framework in a series of synthetic and real-world experiments. This new framework can, in future, be applied to estimate energy and gas exchange in heterogeneous landscapes more representatively than conventional methods.
Basivi Radhakrishna
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6705–6722, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6705-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6705-2022, 2022
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Raindrop size distributions (DSDs) measured by various types of disdrometers are different in the same environmental conditions. The mass-weighted mean diameter (Dm) measured from JWD is larger, and ZDR is smaller than LPM and PARSIVEL due to the resonance effect at X-band frequency. The effect of wind on DSD measured by various disdrometers is not uniform in different regions of a tropical cyclone.
Katarzyna Ośródka, Irena Otop, and Jan Szturc
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5581–5597, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5581-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5581-2022, 2022
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The quality control of sub-hourly rain gauge data is a challenging task due to the high variability and low spatial consistency of the data. We developed an innovative approach to the quality control of telemetric rain gauge data focused on assessing the reliability of individual observations. Our scheme employs weather radar data to detect erroneous rain gauge measurements and to assess the data reliability. The scheme is used operationally by the Polish meteorological and hydrological service.
Gina Jozef, John Cassano, Sandro Dahlke, and Gijs de Boer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4001–4022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4001-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4001-2022, 2022
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During the MOSAiC expedition, meteorological conditions over the lowest 1 km of the atmosphere were sampled with the DataHawk2 uncrewed aircraft system. These data were used to identify the best method for atmospheric boundary layer height detection by comparing visually identified subjective boundary layer height to that identified by several objective automated detection methods. The results show a bulk Richardson number-based approach gives the best estimate of boundary layer height.
Antonio R. Segales, Phillip B. Chilson, and Jorge L. Salazar-Cerreño
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2607–2621, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2607-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2607-2022, 2022
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The mitigation of undesired contamination, sensor characterization, and signal conditioning and restoration is crucial to improve the reliability of the weather unmanned aerial system (UAS) deliverables. This study presents an overview of the general considerations and procedures to compensate for slow sensor response and other sources of error for temperature and humidity measurements collected using a UAS.
Soo-Hyun Kim, Jeonghoe Kim, Jung-Hoon Kim, and Hye-Yeong Chun
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2277–2298, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2277-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2277-2022, 2022
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The cube root of the energy dissipation rate (EDR), as a standard reporting metric of atmospheric turbulence, is estimated using 1 Hz commercial quick access recorder data from Korean-based national air carriers with two different types of aircraft. Various EDRs are estimated using zonal, meridional, and derived vertical wind components and the derived equivalent vertical gust. Characteristics of the observed EDR estimates using 1 Hz flight data are examined to observe strong turbulence cases.
Shaohui Zhou, Yuanjian Yang, Zhiqiu Gao, Xingya Xi, Zexia Duan, and Yubin Li
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 757–773, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-757-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-757-2022, 2022
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Our research has determined the possible relationship between Weibull natural wind mesoscale parameter c and shape factor k with height under the conditions of a desert steppe terrain in northern China, which has great potential in wind power generation. We have gained an enhanced understanding of the seasonal changes in the surface roughness of the desert grassland and the changes in the incoming wind direction.
Xinhua Zhou, Tian Gao, Eugene S. Takle, Xiaojie Zhen, Andrew E. Suyker, Tala Awada, Jane Okalebo, and Jiaojun Zhu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 95–115, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-95-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-95-2022, 2022
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Air temperature from sonic temperature and air moisture has been used without an exact equation. We present an exact equation of such air temperature for closed-path eddy-covariance flux measurements. Air temperature from this equation is equivalent to sonic temperature in its accuracy and frequency response. It is a choice for advanced flux topics because, with it, thermodynamic variables in the flux measurements can be temporally synchronized and spatially matched at measurement scales.
Haoyu Jiang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1–9, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1-2022, 2022
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Sea surface wind and waves are important ocean parameters that can be continuously observed by meteorological buoys. Meteorological buoys are sparse in the ocean due to their high cost of deployment and maintenance. In contrast, low-cost compact wave buoys are suited for deployment in large numbers. Although wave buoys are not designed for wind measurement, we found that deep learning can estimate wind from wave measurements accurately, making wave buoys a good-quality data source for sea wind.
Matthias Mauder, Andreas Ibrom, Luise Wanner, Frederik De Roo, Peter Brugger, Ralf Kiese, and Kim Pilegaard
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7835–7850, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7835-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7835-2021, 2021
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Turbulent flux measurements suffer from a general systematic underestimation. One reason for this bias is non-local transport by large-scale circulations. A recently developed model for this additional transport of sensible and latent energy is evaluated for three different test sites. Different options on how to apply this correction are presented, and the results are evaluated against independent measurements.
Maryam Ilyas, Douglas Nychka, Chris Brierley, and Serge Guillas
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7103–7121, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7103-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7103-2021, 2021
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Instrumental temperature records are fundamental to climate science. There are spatial gaps in the distribution of these measurements across the globe. This lack of spatial coverage introduces coverage error. In this research, a methodology is developed and used to quantify the coverage errors. It results in a data product that, for the first time, provides a full description of both the spatial coverage uncertainties along with the uncertainties in the modeling of these spatial gaps.
Jussi Leinonen, Jacopo Grazioli, and Alexis Berne
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 6851–6866, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6851-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6851-2021, 2021
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Measuring the shape, size and mass of a large number of snowflakes is a challenging task; it is hard to achieve in an automatic and instrumented manner. We present a method to retrieve these properties of individual snowflakes using as input a triplet of images/pictures automatically collected by a multi-angle snowflake camera (MASC) instrument. Our method, based on machine learning, is trained on artificially generated snowflakes and evaluated on 3D-printed snowflake replicas.
Longjiang Li, Suqin Wu, Kefei Zhang, Xiaoming Wang, Wang Li, Zhen Shen, Dantong Zhu, Qimin He, and Moufeng Wan
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 6379–6394, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6379-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6379-2021, 2021
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The zenith hydrostatic delay (ZHD) derived from blind models are of low accuracy, especially in mid- and high-latitude regions. To address this issue, the ratio of the ZHD to zenith total delay (ZTD) is firstly investigated; then, based on the relationship between the ZHD and ZTD, a new ZHD model was developed using the back propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN) method which took the ZTD as an input variable. The model outperforms blind models.
Grant W. Petty
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1959–1976, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1959-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1959-2021, 2021
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Aircraft measurements of turbulent fluxes of matter and energy are important in field investigations of the interaction of the Earth's surface and the atmosphere. Because these measurements are of randomly fluctuating quantities, averages must be taken over longer flight tracks to reduce uncertainty. This paper investigates the relationship between track length and measurement error using a computer model simulation of a marine environment and compares the results with published theory.
Yadong Wang, Lin Tang, Pao-Liang Chang, and Yu-Shuang Tang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 185–197, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-185-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-185-2021, 2021
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The motivation of this work is to develop a precipitation separation approach that can be implemented on those radars with fast scanning schemes. In these schemes, the higher tilt radar data are not available, which poses a challenge for the traditional approaches. This approach uses artificial intelligence, which integrates polarimetric radar variables. The quantitative precipitation estimation will benefit from the output of this algorithm.
Loiy Al-Ghussain and Sean C. C. Bailey
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 173–184, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-173-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-173-2021, 2021
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Unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with multi-hole probes are an effective approach to measure the wind vector with high spatial and temporal resolution. However, the aircraft motion must be removed from the measured signal first, a process often introducing bias due to small errors in the relative orientation of coordinates. We present an approach that has successfully been applied in post-processing, which was found to minimize the influence of aircraft motion on wind measurements.
Alessandro Fassò, Michael Sommer, and Christoph von Rohden
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 6445–6458, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6445-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6445-2020, 2020
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Modern radiosonde balloons fly from ground level up to the lower stratosphere and take temperature measurements. What is the uncertainty of interpolated values in the resulting atmospheric temperature profiles? To answer this question, we introduce a general statistical–mathematical model for the computation of interpolation uncertainty. Analysing more than 51 million measurements, we provide some understanding of the consequences of filling missing data with interpolated ones.
Jussi Leinonen and Alexis Berne
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 2949–2964, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2949-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2949-2020, 2020
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The appearance of snowflakes provides a signature of the atmospheric processes that created them. To get this information from large numbers of snowflake images, automated analysis using computer image recognition is needed. In this work, we use a neural network that learns the structure of the snowflake images to divide a snowflake dataset into classes corresponding to different sizes and structures. Unlike with most comparable methods, only minimal input from a human expert is needed.
Amber Ross, Craig D. Smith, and Alan Barr
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 2979–2994, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2979-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2979-2020, 2020
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The raw data derived from most automated accumulating precipitation gauges often suffer from non-precipitation-related fluctuations in the measurement of the gauge bucket weights from which the precipitation amount is determined. This noise can be caused by electrical interference, mechanical noise, and evaporation. This paper presents an automated filtering technique that builds on the principle of iteratively balancing noise to produce a clean precipitation time series.
Soo-Hyun Kim, Hye-Yeong Chun, Jung-Hoon Kim, Robert D. Sharman, and Matt Strahan
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 1373–1385, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1373-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1373-2020, 2020
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We retrieve the eddy dissipation rate (EDR) from the derived equivalent vertical gust included in the Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay data for more reliable and consistent observations of aviation turbulence globally with the single preferred EDR metric. We convert the DEVG to the EDR using two methods (lognormal mapping scheme and best-fit curve between EDR and DEVG), and the DEVG-derived EDRs are evaluated against in situ EDR data reported by US-operated carriers.
Nicholas Hamilton
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 1019–1032, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1019-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1019-2020, 2020
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The identification of atmospheric conditions within a multivariable atmospheric data set is an important step in validating emerging and existing models used to simulate wind plant flows and operational strategies. The total variation approach developed here offers a method founded in tested mathematical metrics and can be used to identify and characterize periods corresponding to quiescent conditions or specific events of interest for study or wind energy development.
Dafina Kikaj, Janja Vaupotič, and Scott D. Chambers
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 4455–4477, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4455-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4455-2019, 2019
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A new method was developed to identify persistent temperature inversion events in a subalpine basin using a radon-based method (RBM). By comparing with an existing pseudo-vertical temperature gradient method, the RBM was shown to be more reliable and seasonally independent. The RBM has the potential to increase the understanding of meteorological controls on air pollution episodes in complex terrain beyond the capability of contemporary atmospheric stability classification tools.
Jens Faber, Michael Gerding, Andreas Schneider, Andreas Dörnbrack, Henrike Wilms, Johannes Wagner, and Franz-Josef Lübken
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 4191–4210, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4191-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4191-2019, 2019
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Atmospheric measurements on rising balloons can be compromised by the balloon's wake. The aim of this study is to provide a tool for assessing the likelihood of encountering the balloon's wake at the position of the gondola. This includes an uncertainty analysis of the calculation and a retrieval of vertical winds. We find an average wake encounter probability of 28 % for a standard radiosonde. Additionally, we evaluate the influence of wake from smaller objects on turbulence measurements.
Maosi Chen, Zhibin Sun, John M. Davis, Yan-An Liu, Chelsea A. Corr, and Wei Gao
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 935–953, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-935-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-935-2019, 2019
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Combining a new dynamic uncertainty estimation method with Gaussian process regression (GP), we provide a generic and robust solution to estimate the underlying mean and uncertainty functions of time series with variable mean, noise, sampling density, and length of gaps. The GP solution was applied and validated on three UV-MFRSR Vo time series at three ground sites with improved accuracy of the smoothed time series in terms of aerosol optical depth compared with two other smoothing methods.
Christoph Schlager, Gottfried Kirchengast, and Juergen Fuchsberger
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 5607–5627, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5607-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5607-2018, 2018
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In this work we further developed and evaluated an operational weather diagnostic application, the WegenerNet Wind Product Generator (WPG), and applied it to the WegenerNet Johnsbachtal (JBT), a dense meteorological station network located in a mountainous Alpine region. The WPG automatically generates gridded high-resolution wind fields in near-real time with a temporal resolution of 30 min and a spatial resolution of 100 m x 100 m.
Kaisa Lakkala, Antti Arola, Julian Gröbner, Sergio Fabian León-Luis, Alberto Redondas, Stelios Kazadzis, Tomi Karppinen, Juha Matti Karhu, Luca Egli, Anu Heikkilä, Tapani Koskela, Antonio Serrano, and José Manuel Vilaplana
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 5167–5180, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5167-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5167-2018, 2018
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The performance of the cosine error correction method for correcting spectral UV measurements of the Brewer spectroradiometer was studied. The correction depends on the sky radiation distribution, which can change during one spectral scan. The results showed that the correction varied between 4 and 14 %, and that the relative differences between the reference and the Brewer diminished by 10 %. The method is applicable to other instruments as long as the required input parameters are available.
Jason Kelley and Chad Higgins
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 2151–2158, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-2151-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-2151-2018, 2018
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Measuring fluxes of energy and trace gases using the surface renewal (SR) method can be economical and robust, but it requires computationally intensive calculations. Several new algorithms were written to perform the required calculations more efficiently and rapidly, and were tested with field data and computationally rigorous SR methods. These efficient algorithms facilitate expanded use of SR in atmospheric experiments, for applied monitoring, and in novel field implementations.
Viswanathan Bringi, Merhala Thurai, and Darrel Baumgardner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 1377–1384, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-1377-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-1377-2018, 2018
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Raindrop fall velocities are important for rain rate estimation, soil erosion studies and in numerical modelling of rain formation in clouds. The assumption that the fall velocity is uniquely related to drop size is made inherently based on laboratory measurements under still air conditions from nearly 68 years ago. There have been very few measurements of drop fall speeds in natural rain under both still and turbulent wind conditions. We report on fall speed measurements in natural rain shafts.
Marta Wacławczyk, Yong-Feng Ma, Jacek M. Kopeć, and Szymon P. Malinowski
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 4573–4585, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4573-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4573-2017, 2017
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We propose two novel methods to estimate turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate applicable to airborne measurements. In this way we increase robustness of the dissipation rate retrieval and extend its applicability to a wider range of data sets. The new approaches relate the predicted form of the dissipation spectrum to the mean of zero crossings of the measured velocity fluctuations. The methods are easy to implement numerically, and estimates remain unaffected by certain measurement errors.
Sabine Wüst, Verena Wendt, Ricarda Linz, and Michael Bittner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 3453–3462, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-3453-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-3453-2017, 2017
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Cubic splines with equidistant spline sampling points are a common method in atmospheric science for the approximation of background conditions by means of filtering superimposed fluctuations from a data series. However, splines can generate considerable artificial oscillations in the background and the residuals. We introduce a repeating spline approach which is able to significantly reduce this phenomenon and to apply it to TIMED-SABER vertical temperature profiles from 2010 to 2014.
Mohamed Djallel Dilmi, Cécile Mallet, Laurent Barthes, and Aymeric Chazottes
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 1557–1574, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1557-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1557-2017, 2017
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The concept of a rain event is used to obtain a parsimonious characterisation of rain events using a minimal subset of variables at macrophysical scale. A classification in five classes is obtained in a unsupervised way from this subset. Relationships between these classes of microphysical parameters of precipitation are highlighted. There are several implications especially for remote sensing in the context of weather radar applications and quantitative precipitation estimation.
Christophe Praz, Yves-Alain Roulet, and Alexis Berne
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 1335–1357, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1335-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1335-2017, 2017
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The Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera (MASC) provides high-resolution pictures of individual falling snowflakes and ice crystals. A method is proposed to automatically classify these pictures into six classes of snowflakes as well to estimate the degree of riming and to detect whether or not the particles are melting. Multinomial logistic regression is used with a manually classified
reference set. The evaluation demonstrates the good and reliable performance of the proposed technique.
Zhaopeng Luan, Yongxiang Han, Tianliang Zhao, Feng Liu, Chong Liu, Mark J. Rood, Xinghua Yang, Qing He, and Huichao Lu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 273–279, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-273-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-273-2017, 2017
Zofia Baldysz, Grzegorz Nykiel, Andrzej Araszkiewicz, Mariusz Figurski, and Karolina Szafranek
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 4861–4877, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4861-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4861-2016, 2016
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In this paper two official processing strategies of GPS observations were analysed. The main purpose was to assess differences in long-term (linear trends) and short-term (oscillations) changes between these two sets of data. Investigation was based on 18-year and 16-year time series and showed that, despite the general consistency, for selected stations a change of processing strategy may have caused significant differences (compared to the uncertainties) in estimated linear trend values.
Jussi Tiira, Dmitri N. Moisseev, Annakaisa von Lerber, Davide Ori, Ali Tokay, Larry F. Bliven, and Walter Petersen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 4825–4841, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4825-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4825-2016, 2016
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In this study winter measurements collected in Southern Finland are used to document microphysical properties of falling snow. It is shown that a new video imager can be used for such studies. Snow properties do vary between winters.
Gutemberg Borges França, Manoel Valdonel de Almeida, and Alessana C. Rosette
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 2335–2344, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2335-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2335-2016, 2016
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This paper presents a novel model, based on neural network techniques, to produce short-term and locally specific forecasts of significant instability for flights in the terminal area of Rio de Janeiro's airport, Brazil. Twelve years of data were used for neural network training/validation and test. The test showed that the proposed model can grab the physical content inside the data set, and its performance is encouraging for the first and second hours to nowcast significant instability events.
Jacek M. Kopeć, Kamil Kwiatkowski, Siebren de Haan, and Szymon P. Malinowski
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 2253–2265, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2253-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2253-2016, 2016
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This paper is presenting a feasibility study focused on methods of estimating the turbulence intensity based on a class of navigational messages routinely broadcast by the commercial aircraft (known as ADS-B and Mode-S). Using this kind of information could have potentially significant impact on aviation safety. Three methods have been investigated.
Jörg Burdanowitz, Christian Klepp, and Stephan Bakan
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 1637–1652, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1637-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1637-2016, 2016
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We develop a new automatic algorithm to distinguish oceanic precipitation into rain, snow and mixed phase using optical disdrometers deployed on board research vessels. In combination, air temperature, relative humidity and the maximum precipitation particle diameter outperform human observer data and yield highest skill to predict the precipitation phase. This knowledge allows deriving accurate rain and snowfall rates with dense global ocean sampling, which enables satellite sensor validation.
Wilko Jessen, Stefan Wilbert, Bijan Nouri, Norbert Geuder, and Holger Fritz
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 1601–1612, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1601-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1601-2016, 2016
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This paper covers procedures and requirements of two calibration methods and examines the necessary duration of acquisition of test measurements.
Site-specific seasonal changes of environmental conditions cause small but noticeable fluctuation of calibration results. Calibration results within certain periods show a higher likelihood of deviation. These effects can partially be attenuated by including more measurements from outside these periods.
G. Biavati, D. G. Feist, C. Gerbig, and R. Kretschmer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 4215–4230, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4215-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4215-2015, 2015
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The goal of this work is to present a method that can be used to estimate the uncertainty for a singular estimate for the mixing height. It is defined here as the localization error. The method is based on the actual signal (radiosonde) and its measurement errors, ant it does not consider the physics causing the signal.
It can be applied to all kind of signals and algorithm when standard error propagation cannot be used to asses the uncertainty of a location of a localized property.
Y. Inai, M. Shiotani, M. Fujiwara, F. Hasebe, and H. Vömel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 4043–4054, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4043-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4043-2015, 2015
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For conventional soundings, the pressure bias of radiosonde leads to an altitude misestimation, which can lead to offsets in any meteorological profile. Therefore, we must take this issue into account to improve historical data sets.
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Short summary
This study evaluates how a classically defined variable, air parcel buoyancy, can be used to interpret transitions in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). To capture the high-resolution variations, remotely piloted aircraft systems are used to collect data in two field campaigns. This paper finds that buoyancy has distinct evolutions prior to low-level jet and convective initiation cases. Additionally, buoyancy mixes well to act as an ABL height indicator comparable to other methods.
This study evaluates how a classically defined variable, air parcel buoyancy, can be used to...
