The Howard University Beltsville Research Campus Highlights from the Recent Wind Lidar and Water Vap

1
The Howard University Beltsville Research Campus
Highlights from the Recent Wind Lidar and Water
Vapor Experiments February - March 2009

• B. Demoz, D. Venable, T. Bacha Howard
  University
• B. Gentry NASA/GSFC
• H. Chen, K. Vermeesch SSAI, MD
• G. Koch, U. Singh NASA/LaRC
• M. Boquet, L. Sauvage LEOSPHERE, France

Acknowledgment Dr. E. Joseph at Howard
University Drs. D. Whiteman, T. McGee at
NASA/GSFC Funding NASA/ROSES07 (Dr. Ramesh
Kakar)
2
Outline

• HU-Beltsville Research Campus (HUBRC)
• Broad goals
• Location and Instrumentation
• Recent Experiments
• FYI Water Vapor and Temperature (WAVES/N-WAVES)
  
• Howard University Wind Lidar Experiment
• Goals
• Highlights of comparisons
• Historical Wind Data at IAD
• Summary Things yet to be done

3
Broad Goals of Beltsville Field Site

• Enhance capacity of HU to conduct research
• Facility for hands-on student training
• Contribute to national and international climate
  and environmental monitoring activities
• PBL (observation, parameterization, forecast)
• Climate observations and satellite validation
  (GRUAN, AIRS/TES, NDACC)
• Pollution studies (MDE)
• Lidar (Wind, Aerosol, Water Vapor/Raman)
• Radiosonde sensor evaluation (NWS)

4
Location
?PSU

• Semi-urban site (not pristine)
• Major Pollution corridor
• Integrate Science and Education
• Extensive instrumentation
• Great place for collaboration
• Diverse weather conditions

Major Pollution Transport corridor
MDE
UMBC
BWI Airport
HUB
NOAA
UMD
GSFC
Dulles Airport Sterling (NWS)
Wallops?
National Airport
?UVA
5
Aerial View HUBRC
Latitude 39º 03 15.117 Longitude -76º 52
39.448 Elevation 53.2 m Area 110 acres
6
N-WAVES Experimenthttp//tropometrics.com
NDACC-WAVES_2009 Technology and calibration
development for UT/LS water vapor profiling using
Raman Lidar Starting of climatology of UT/LS
water vapor using lidar sonde at BV for climate
change studies Instruments HURL Howard
Univ. Raman Lidar (q) ALVICE GSFC Raman Lidar
(Whiteman q, T) AT GSFC Raman Lidar (McGee
q, T) STROZE-LITE (McGee Ozone) Funding
NASA/ROSES07 Atmospheric Composition (K.
Jucks)
7
Howard University Wind Lidar Experiment
Feb.-March 2009

• GOALS
• Doppler lidar wind performance for various
  aerosol loading (pollution, cirrus, etc)
• Develop seasonal data archive for lidar wind
• Demonstrate the aerosol/molecular (VALIDAR/GLOW)
  wind concept
• Compare lidar wind to other sensors (Profiler,
  sonde, AMDAR, etc).
• Hands-on student training of students

8
Howard University Wind Lidar Experiment

• GOALS
• Lidar wind in various aerosol loading (pollution,
  cirrus, etc)
• Develop seasonal data archive for lidar wind
• Demonstrate the VALIDAR - GLOW wind concept
• Compare lidar wind to other sensors (Profiler,
  sonde, AMDAR, etc).

9
Howard University Wind Lidar Experiment
? Wind Experiment Period
?
? N-WAVES Experiment Period ?
10
ACARS_Profiler_sondeAircraft Meteorological DAta
Relay (AMDAR)
Substantial Variability between AMDAR, Sonde and
Profiler in Speed in Direction below 6km.
11
ACARS-GLOW Example
12
LEOSPHERE WLS70www.leosphere.com

• Output
• Laser power 20 microjoules
• Vr, CNR (line of sight, 1Hz)
• U, V, W, Vh, Direction (1Hz)
• Vhm, Dirm, Um, Vm, Wm, every 10 min

13
VALIDAR-WLS70
14
GLOW-Sonde
sonde altitude at time of lidar measurement.
Assumes rise rate of 5 m/s.
15
GLOW-VALIDARExample 24 Feb. 2009

• Good correlation in the overlap region
• Good correlation with Sonde

16
Historical Wind Data AnalysisSingle station
(IAD) Balloon

• Summary
• Jet altitude varies by 2.5km
• 250 m res (10)
• 25m/s variation in 1-yr
• 2.5 m/s res (10), monthly average.

17
Summary/Conclusion To do list

• Completed of 1st GLOW/VALIDAR Experiment
• Continue GLOW/VALIDAR/other analysis
• Start lidar wind versus optical depth work
• Plan for a 2nd GLOW/VALIDAR deployment (?)
• PBL WRF/Lidar/Profiler/Sonde work in progress
• Complete LEOSPHERE WLS70 performance study
• Check Sonde-to-sonde wind variability
• Lidar winds during Cold fronts/LL-Jets
• Collaborate with Regional OSSE work (Z. Pu et
  al.)
• Lidar humidity/temperature/wind offers a 1st look
  at UTLS structure

18
END

• THANK YOU

19

• ACARS (Aircraft Communications, Addressing, and
  Reporting System) is the name of a data link
  service provided by Aeronautical Radio, Inc. that
  sends data between aircraft and ground stations
• MDCRS (Meteorological Data, Collection and
  Reporting System) is the weather portion of the
  ACARS data stream provided by seven major U.S.
  air carriers
• TAMDAR (Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological DAta
  Reporting) data are provided by a private
  company, AirDat, who uses regional air carriers
• Aircraft Meteorological DAta Relay (AMDAR) is the
  preferred term by the WMO and NWS.