Ceilometer observations of aerosol layer structure above the Petit Lubéron during ESCOMPTE's IOP 2

Zéphoris, Marcel; Holin, Hubert; Lavie, Franck; Cenac, Nadine; Cluzeau, Michel; Delas, Olivier; Eideliman, F.; Gagneux, Jacqueline; Gander, Alain; Thibord, Corinne

doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2004.06.014

Cited by 14 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…In recent works, different measurement techniques have been tested to identify relevant structures in the PBL (Emeis et al 2004). In particular, the aerosol structure observed in the backscatter profiles derived by lidar ceilometer resulted in agreement with PBL stratification derived from radiosonde temperature profiles (Zéphoris et al 2005;Eresmaa et al 2006;Münkel et al 2007).…”

Section: Pbl Heightsupporting

confidence: 74%

Atmospheric Aerosol Characterization Over Naples During 2000–2003 EARLINET Project: Planetary Boundary-Layer Evolution and Layering

Boselli

Armenante

D'Avino

et al. 2009

Boundary-Layer Meteorol

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The evolution of the planetary boundary layer and the influence of local circulation phenomena over Naples (southern Italy, 40.838 • N, 14.183 • E, 118 m above sea level) have been studied by systematic lidar measurements of aerosol optical properties and vertical distributions carried out from May 2000 to August 2003, in the course of the EARLI-NET project. In particular, our data show the development of aerosol layers typically located in the range between 1,000 and 2,300 m, with variable thickness. The optical properties of the observed layers have been determined. In order to analyse the evolution of the planetary boundary layer, detailed observations of complete diurnal cycles have also been performed. The analysis of lidar measurements of vertical profiles of wind speed and wind direction and air mass back-trajectories allowed us to characterize the sea-breeze circulation influence on both the planetary boundary-layer evolution and the observed aerosol vertical distribution.

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Section: Pbl Heightsupporting

confidence: 74%

Atmospheric Aerosol Characterization Over Naples During 2000–2003 EARLINET Project: Planetary Boundary-Layer Evolution and Layering

Boselli

Armenante

D'Avino

et al. 2009

Boundary-Layer Meteorol

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“…The spatial aerosol distribution over some tens of kilometers was investigated by, e.g., Dupont et al [1999] or Menut et al [1999]. The strengths of certain techniques, e.g., the unattended operation for continuous monitoring, and their weaknesses, e.g., the limited vertical coverage, as well as mutual comparisons of different instruments have in part been discussed in previous studies [e.g., Coulter , 1979; Devara et al , 1995; De Tomasi and Perrone , 2006; Zéphoris et al , 2005]. Comparisons between retrievals from ceilometer, RASS and sodar were published recently [ Emeis et al , 2004] and showed good agreement provided that the mixing layer heights are within the measurement range of the instruments (about 1 km).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mixing layer height over Munich, Germany: Variability and comparisons of different methodologies

Wiegner

Emeis²,

Freudenthaler

et al. 2006

J. Geophys. Res.

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[1] On 4 days in summer and winter the mixing layer height over the municipal area of Munich, Germany, was determined by several remote sensing instruments and in situ probes. The main motivation was to obtain information on aerosols, and therefore we decided to understand the mixing layer as that layer where most of the locally produced aerosols are concentrated. In this paper we wanted to investigate the potential of the quite different methodologies which depend on measurements of aerosol properties and those which do not. The operation of two lidars, a ceilometer, a wind-temperatureradar, a sodar, radiosondes, and aerosol probes onboard of a microlight aircraft allowed such a thorough intercomparison. As the instruments were located at different sites, the horizontal homogeneity of the mixing layer could also be observed. It was found that the agreement between the different methodologies is very good as long as the mixing layer height does not exceed approximately 1 km, which is the common measurement range of all instruments. In summer, however, the mixing layer can reach 2 km and more, so that the lidar turns out to be the most capable remote sensing technique. Another advantage of the lidar is the possibility to clearly derive the internal structure of the mixing layer. The latter is important in cases when simple parameterizations assume vertical homogeneity of aerosol properties within the mixing layer. On the other hand, lidars are quite expensive and require a trained operator. As a conclusion, the development of unattended working lidars including automated data evaluation should be fostered. From the limited data set it was found that the mixing layer height in Munich did not change more than approximately 100 m over a horizontal distance of around 50 km. If this finding can be confirmed by further measurements, the area of Munich is a good test bed for the validation of aerosol retrievals from satellite data with medium spatial resolution and for the validation of the numerical treatment of aerosols in mesoscale chemistry transport models.

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“…For a detailed discussion of ceilometer operation see Rogers et al (1997). In order to provide a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio, tens of thousands of individual profiles are averaged together, which limits the minimum sampling rate to 3 s. Although originally designed to determine cloud heights, in recent years ceilometers have begun to be used for determining boundary-layer structure by taking the backscatter intensity of the returned laser light as a proxy for ground-sourced aerosol concentrations (Räsänen et al 2000;Emeis et al 2004;Zephoris et al 2005;van der Kamp et al 2008;McKendry et al 2009). Marked decreases in aerosol concentrations within the entrainment zone allow the convective mixed-layer height to be identified from ceilometer observations.…”

Section: Ceilometermentioning

confidence: 99%

Diurnal and Seasonal Trends in Convective Mixed-Layer Heights Estimated from Two Years of Continuous Ceilometer Observations in Vancouver, BC

Kamp

McKendry

2010

Boundary-Layer Meteorol

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Twenty-six months of continuous ceilometer data are used to estimate the convective mixed-layer height for 710 days by identifying backscatter gradients associated with the entrainment zone. To accomplish this, a semi-automatic procedure is developed that removes all non-applicable data before applying a mixed-layer height algorithm to the backscatter profiles. Two different algorithms for estimating the mixed-layer height are assessed: the minimum-gradient method and the ideal-profile method. The latter of these two algorithms is found to be more robust. Comparisons of mixed-layer height values estimated from the ceilometer agree with previous observations with slightly higher estimates in the mornings and evenings. For clear days with no cumulus cloud formation, the seasonal cycle in mixed-layer heights peaks in late June to early July. Daily maximum values are suppressed by the site's coastal location, remaining below 800 m for all but a few days. The mean daily maximum mixed-layer height increases by 384 m for days with boundary-layer clouds. The mean summer diurnal trend is found not to differ greatly from that in spring on clear days, while days with boundary-layer clouds have higher spring values than in summer. Net surface heat flux and synoptic stability likely have the largest influence on the mixed-layer heights. Additionally, large intra-monthly variability suggests a strong influence from regional dynamics.

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Ceilometer observations of aerosol layer structure above the Petit Lubéron during ESCOMPTE's IOP 2

Cited by 14 publications

References 9 publications

Atmospheric Aerosol Characterization Over Naples During 2000–2003 EARLINET Project: Planetary Boundary-Layer Evolution and Layering

Atmospheric Aerosol Characterization Over Naples During 2000–2003 EARLINET Project: Planetary Boundary-Layer Evolution and Layering

Mixing layer height over Munich, Germany: Variability and comparisons of different methodologies

Diurnal and Seasonal Trends in Convective Mixed-Layer Heights Estimated from Two Years of Continuous Ceilometer Observations in Vancouver, BC

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