Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: . Accurate measurement of the mixed layer height (MLH) is a key observational capability necessary for many studies in weather forecasting, air quality assessment, and surface-atmosphere exchange. However, continuous MLH monitoring with backscatter lidars remains challenging under complex atmospheric conditions, including cloudy conditions and in the presence of residual layers. This study evaluates two complementary MLH retrieval algorithms using a single MicroPulse differential absorption lidar (MPD): an aerosol-based approach that analyzes aerosol backscatter gradients with a wavelet technique and a thermodynamic technique based on the vertical structure of virtual potential temperature profiles. Both techniques were compared against MLH estimates from radiosondes, a Doppler wind lidar, and a high-resolution weather model. The aerosol method achieved high temporal resolution and agreement with radiosonde MLH estimates under convective conditions (R2 = 0.819–0.919), but its MLH estimates deviated from other methods during morning and evening transitions due to residual layer interference. The thermodynamic method avoided these problems but had coarser resolution and degraded instrument performance beneath clouds (R2 = 0.661–0.845). The study highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each method. Together, they offer a path toward more reliable automatic MLH monitoring with a single instrument by capturing when different MLH definitions converge.
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,585
Awards: Research Infrastructure: RII Track 1: Integrating Montana's Environmental Research with Smart Sensors (IMERSS), G186094483, G214525616, G2183217623, The Management and Operation of the National Center for Atmoshperic Research (NCAR), Diode-Laser-Based Doppler Wind Lidar for Vertical Wind Profiling, Collaborative Research: Theoretical and observational investigations of multi-point Monin-Obukhov similarity in the convective atmospheric surface layer, G7455027554, G868160854, Collaborative Research: Theoretical and observational investigations of multi-point Monin-Obukhov similarity in the convective atmospheric surface layer
OpenAlex ID: W4415837809