Publication Date:
2019-07-10
Description:
The Southern Great Plains (SGP97) field experiment was conducted in Oklahoma during June and July 1997 primarily to validate soil moisture retrieval algorithms using microwave radiometer measurements from aircraft as well as in situ surface measurements. One important objective of the SGP97 experiment plan was to examine the effect of soil moisture on the evolution of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and clouds over the Southern Great Plains during the warm season. To support boundary layer studies during SGP97. the NASA Langley Research Center's Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment (LASE) was flown on a NASA-P3 aircraft in conjunction with the Electronically Scanned Thinned Array Radiometer (ESTAR). The LASE instrument is an airborne, downward-looking differential absorption lidar (DIAL) system capable of measuring water vapor concentration as well as aerosol backscatter with high horizontal and vertical resolution in the ABL. Here, we will demonstrate how the LASE data can be used to determine water vapor statistics and most of the water vapor budget terms in the ABL. This information can then be related to spatial variations in soil moisture and the surface energy budget. The extensive surface and aircraft in situ measurements conducted during SGP97 provide information on the ABL that cannot be retrieved from the LASE data alone and also offer an excellent opportunity to validate the remote water vapor budget measurements with LASE.
Keywords:
Meteorology and Climatology
Type:
; 462-464
Format:
text
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