The strategy providing an estimation of both the mean velocity and the temporal and spatial spectra of radial velocity from data of the same pulse coherent Doppler lidar is proposed. Theoretical relations taking into account the averaging over the probing volume while estimating the spectra of fluctuations of the radial velocity measured by lidar are presented. The method of estimation of the turbulent energy dissipation rate and the variance of the vertical component of wind velocity vector from the spectra of radial velocity is carried out. The results of the comparative experiments are discussed and used in further studies of wind turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer during the formation of low-level jets and propagation of internal gravity waves.

The accuracy of the method of azimuth structure function for estimation of the dissipation rate of the kinetic energy of turbulence from an array of radial velocities measured by low-energy micropulse coherent Doppler lidars with conical scanning by a probing beam around the vertical axis has been studied numerically. The applicability of the method in dependence on the turbulence intensity and the signal-to-noise ratio has been determined. The method of azimuth structure function was applied for estimation of the turbulent energy dissipation rate from radial velocities measured by the lidar in the experiments on the coast of Lake Baikal. Two dimensional time-height patterns of the wind turbulence energy dissipation rate were obtained. Part of them were obtained in presence of the atmospheric internal waves (AIWs) and low-level jet streams. It is observed that the wind turbulence in the area occupied by jet streams is very weak. In the process of dissipation of AIWs the wind turbulence strength increases.

Abstract. A method is proposed for determining the height of the turbulent mixing layer on the basis of the vertical profiles of the dissipation rate of turbulent energy, which is estimated from lidar measurements of the radial wind velocity using conical scanning by a probe beam around the vertical axis. The accuracy of the proposed method is discussed in detail. It is shown that for the estimation of the mixing layer height (MLH) with the acceptable relative error not exceeding 20 %, the signal-to-noise ratio should be no less than −16 dB, when the relative error of lidar estimation of the dissipation rate does not exceed 30 %. The method was tested in a 6 d experiment in which the wind velocity turbulence was estimated in smog conditions due to forest fires in Siberia in summer 2019. The results of the experiment reveal that the relative error of determination of the MLH time series obtained by this method does not exceed 10 % in the period of turbulence development. The estimates of the turbulent mixing layer height by the proposed method are in a qualitative agreement with the MLH estimated from the distributions of the Richardson number in height and time obtained during the comparison experiment in spring 2020.

The paper presents the results of probing the stable atmospheric boundary layer in the coastal zone of Lake Baikal with a coherent Doppler wind lidar and a microwave temperature profiler. Two-dimensional height–temporal distributions of the wind velocity vector components, temperature, and parameters characterizing atmospheric stability and wind turbulence were obtained. The parameters of the low-level jets and the atmospheric waves arising in the stable boundary layer were determined. It was shown that the stable atmospheric boundary layer has an inhomogeneous fine scale layered structure characterized by strong variations of the Richardson number Ri. Layers with large Richardson numbers alternate with layers where Ri is less than the critical value of the Richardson number Ricr = 0.25. The channels of decreased stability, where the conditions are close to neutral stratification 0 < Ri < 0.25, arise in the zone of the low-level jets. The wind turbulence in the central part of the observed jets, where Ri > Ricr, is weak, increases considerably to the periphery of jets, at heights where Ri < Ricr. The turbulence may intensify at the appearance of internal atmospheric waves.