Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

Research Applications
Calibrations and Verifications

A primary use for the TLS during field experiments has been verification of remote sensing instruments such as Doppler lidars and sodars. A new algorithm for Doppler lidars produces high-resolution profiles of small scale velocity statistics that needs t obe validated with insitu high-resolution turbulence measurements.

The figure below shows a comparison of TLS measurements (solid line), lidar derived measurements (bullets), and sodar measurements (open circles) versus normalized height z/H where H is the mixing height (defined by the height of the maximum energy dissipation rate gradient). The small-scale velocity statistics are described by the energy dissipation rate ε, while the small-scale temperature turbulence statistics are defined by C_T². Potential temperature θ, wind speed WS, and wind direction are also shown.

Click on image for larger version.

For further details see the related publication:

2005 – Frehlich R, Meillier Y, Jensen M, Balsley B: "Measurements of Boundary Layer Profiles in an Urban Environment". To appear in JOURNAL OF APPLIED METEOROLOGY