Lidar observations of flow variability over complex terrain

Abstract

This paper examines one way in which remote sensing instrumentation can be used to advance our understanding of the interactions between complex terrain and the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). When mean flow speed is of moderate strength and the ABL is stable, mechanical effects will dominate thermal effects in modifying flow speed and direction. Boundary layer measurements were made using the scanning Salford 10 μm pulsed CO2 Doppler lidar during the 2005 Convective Storm Initiation Project (CSIP), above the heterogeneous orography that surrounds Faccombe, Hampshire, UK. A new method of detecting boundary layer flow perturbations was developed and successfully applied to the lidar data, giving a clearer insight into flow modification that occurs above complex terrain. © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society.