Doppler Lidar Estimation of Mixing Height Using Turbulence, Shear, and Aerosol Profiles

The concept of boundary layer mixing height for meteorology and air quality applications using lidar data is reviewed, and new algorithms for estimation of mixing heights from various types of lower-tropospheric coherent Doppler lidar measurements are presented. Velocity variance profiles derived from Doppler lidar data demonstrate direct application to mixing height estimation, while other types of lidar profiles demonstrate relationships to the variance profiles and thus may also be used in the mixing height estimate. The algorithms are applied to ship-based, high-resolution Doppler lidar (HRDL) velocity and backscattered-signal measurements acquired on the R/V Ronald H. Brown during Texas Air Quality Study (TexAQS) 2006 to demonstrate the method and to produce mixing height estimates for that experiment. These combinations of Doppler lidar-derived velocity measurements have not previously been applied to analysis of boundary layer mixing height-over the water or elsewhere. A comparison of the results to those derived from ship-launched, balloon-radiosonde potential temperature and relative humidity profiles is presented.