Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

Science Rendezvous > 2009 Posters
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Coherent Doppler Lidar Applications for Air Quality: Focus on Houston, TX

Sara C. Tucker, Wm. Alan Brewer, Scott P. Sandberg, Daniel Law, Wayne M. Angevine, Jessica B. Gilman, Brian M Lerner, and Eric J. Williams

During the 2006 Texas Air Quality Study, NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory used the High Resolution Doppler Lidar (HRDL) to make continuous measurements of boundary layer (BL) winds and relative aerosol backscatter from the aft deck of the RV Brown. Such measurements, and their derived data products, provide transport and mixing information for chemical species measured on the ship, as well as information about aerosol layer heights, dust events, and marine boundary layer dynamics including surface streaks/rolls, plume structure, turbulence, BL stability, and mixing heights. This paper reviews several of the ways that HRDL data are being used to understand the role that atmospheric dynamics, from synoptic scale winds to small scale turbulence, plays in air quality conditions around Houston, Texas.