A Sneak Peek into Techniques for Improving Boundary Layer Height Measurements

The planetary boundary layer (PBL) is the lowest few kilometers of the atmosphere, where properties like wind velocity, turbulence, and aerosol backscatter vary on timescales shorter than those in the free atmosphere. These PBL properties and PBL structure, variability, and evolution can be observed with the Collaborative Lower Atmospheric Mobile Profiling System (CLAMPS), a versatile platform that houses a Doppler Lidar, microwave radiometer, and other valuable tools such as uncrewed aircraft and balloons. In summer 2021, the collaborative BLISS research group at OU-NSSL-CIWRO deployed several such platforms to the OU Kessler Atmospheric and Ecological Field Station near Washington, Oklahoma. This deployment, called BLISSFUL, was meant to ensure future deployments of these systems are as optimal as possible via testing and evaluation and enable training of students and early career researchers. BLISSFUL CLAMPS data are explored in this study, and new PBL height detection algorithms are examined using this dataset. We hypothesize that a fuzzy logic approach will be favorable as it integrates multiple CLAMPS instruments and multiple measurements from individual instruments, and has been successful for convective PBL depth measurements in past campaigns. Combining instruments and measurements helps eliminate limitations that arise from using any individual method. This is the preliminary step toward preparation for the 2022 American Wake Experiment (AWAKEN) field campaign, which aims to study PBL components in wind farm environments with CLAMPS and other available data sources.