Evaluating convective planetary boundary layer height estimations resolved by both active and passive remote sensing instruments during the CHEESEHEAD19 field campaign

Abstract

During the Chequamegon Heterogeneous Ecosystem Energy-balance Study Enabled by a High-density Extensive Array of Detectors 2019 (CHEESEHEAD19) field campaign, held in the summer of 2019 in northern Wisconsin, USA, active and passive ground-based remote sensing instruments were deployed to understand the response of the planetary boundary layer to heterogeneous land surface forcing. These instruments include radar wind profilers, microwave radiometers, atmospheric emitted radiance interferometers, ceilometers, high spectral resolution lidars, Doppler lidars, and collaborative lower-atmospheric mobile profiling systems that combine several of these instruments. In this study, these ground-based remote sensing instruments are used to estimate the height of the daytime planetary boundary layer, and their performance is compared against independent boundary layer depth estimates obtained from radiosondes launched as part of the field campaign. The impact of clouds (in particular boundary layer clouds) on boundary layer depth estimations is also investigated. We found that while all instruments are overall able to provide reasonable boundary layer depth estimates, each of them shows strengths and weaknesses under certain conditions. For example, radar wind profilers perform well during cloud-free conditions, and microwave radiometers and atmospheric emitted radiance interferometers have a very good agreement during all conditions but are limited by the smoothness of the retrieved thermodynamic profiles. The estimates from ceilometers and high spectral resolution lidars can be hindered by the presence of elevated aerosol layers or clouds, and the multi-instrument retrieval from the collaborative lower atmospheric mobile profiling systems can be constricted to a limited height range in low-aerosol conditions.