Using Doppler lidar systems to detect atmospheric turbulence in Iceland

Abstract. The temporal and spatial scale of atmospheric turbulence is very dynamic, requiring an adequate method to detect and monitor turbulence with high resolution. Doppler Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) systems have been used widely to observe and monitor wind velocity and atmospheric turbulence profiles. Lidar systems can provide continuous information about wind fields using the Doppler effect from emitted light signals. In this study, we use a Leosphere Windcube 200S lidar system stationed in Reykjavik, Iceland, to evaluate turbulence intensity by estimating eddy dissipation rate (EDR). For this purpose, we retrieved radial wind velocity observations from velocity azimuth display (VAD) scans to compute EDR based on the Kolmogorov theory. We compared different noise filter methods, scan strategies and calculation approaches during different selected weather conditions to assess the accuracy of our EDR estimations. The results reveal that the lidar observations can detect and quantify atmospheric turbulence with high spatial and temporal resolution, our algorithm can retrieve EDR and indicate the turbulence intensity. These results suggest that lidar observation can be of high importance for potential end-user, e.g. air traffic controllers at the local airport. The work is an important step towards enhanced aviation safety in a subpolar climate characterized by severe wind turbulence.