Evaluation of a Method for Calculating the Height of the Stable Boundary Layer Based on Wind Profile Lidar and Turbulent Fluxes

Abstract

The height of the stable boundary layer (SBL), known as the nocturnal boundary layer height, is controlled by numerous factors of different natures. The SBL height defines the state of atmospheric turbulence and describes the diffusion capacity of the atmosphere. Therefore, it is unsurprising that many alternative (sometimes contradictory) formulations for the SBL height have been proposed to date, and no consensus has been achieved. In our study, we propose an iterative algorithm to determine the SBL height h based on the flux–profile relationship using wind profiles and turbulent fluxes. This iterative algorithm can obtain temporally continuous, accurate estimates of h and is widely applicable. The predicted h presents relatively good agreement with four observation-derived SBL heights, hJ, h1, hi, and hθ (hJ: maximum wind speed height, h1: zero wind shear height, hi: temperature inversion height, and hθ: height at which 0.8 times the inversion strength appears for the first time), especially with hθ, which shows the best fit. In addition, h exhibits a low absolute difference and relative difference with hJ, which presents the second-best result. The agreement with hi and h1 may be satisfactory, but small differences are observed, and the one standard deviation of the mean relative difference is large. In addition, the predicted h is compared with other SBL height estimation methods, including diagnostic, λ1, λ2 and λ3 (three typical dimensional scale height parameters) and prognostic equation-based methods, λ(h) (an equation for the growth of h developed). The diagnostic formulas are found to be appropriate, especially under extremely stable conditions. Additionally, the equation of λ3 presents the best result of all the dimensional scale height parameters. However, the prognostic equation λ(h) in our study is very unsatisfactory.

All-fiber mobile Doppler wind lidar for combined measurement of the wind field and precise distance to hard targets

“…This lidar demonstrated a maximum pulse energy of 120μJ at a PRF of 20kHz and a pulse duration of 200ns. In the same year, a wind profile lidar was applied to evaluate the boundary layer height, featuring a detection range of up to 3 km [2]. The size of the core component is 350mm×200mm×50mm, and the weight is 25kg.…”

Variance of air temperature in the atmospheric surface layer with temperature inversion

“…The relation of the height S h to the ground values of some weather parameters is used in [4][5][6]. The level, where the turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation rate or the vertical wind variance tend to zero (as compared to values near the underlying surface), is also used as an indicator of the height S h [7][8]. Estimates of S h from lidar profiles of aerosol concentrations are considered in [9][10][11][12].…”

Novel Method for Determining the Height of the Stable Boundary Layer under Low-Level Jet by Judging the Shape of the Wind Velocity Variance Profile

“…The height of the atmospheric boundary layer is an important parameter to determine the characteristics of the atmospheric boundary layer, reflecting physical processes such as turbulent mixing and convection development in the boundary layer, which affect the vertical distribution of the heat, water vapor, aerosols, and other substances and energy [1][2][3]. The nighttime stable boundary layer height is a key parameter in atmospheric transmission and diffusion, air quality, emergency response, wind energy, and numerical weather prediction models [4][5][6].…”