Abstract This research introduces a new approach for studying the clear-air boundary layer using high spatial-resolution three-dimensional wind and thermodynamic fields which can be constantly produced by combining Doppler scanning wind lidars with two advanced retrieval schemes. Two experiments are conducted to highlight the benefits of this approach. In the first field experiment held in a rural area, it is shown that the structure and temporal variation of the boundary layer, including the land-sea breeze, the occurrence of a nocturnal low-level wind maximum, the diurnal cycle in the temperature field, and a semi-diurnal cycle in the pressure field, can be accurately captured. In the second field experiment held in an airport, instead of using the lidar-observed radial velocity along the aircraft approach and departure glide paths to detect the low-level wind shear, the regions of horizontal as well as vertical wind shear can be identified within a three-dimensional space by directly computing the difference in the total wind speed between adjacent points. The approach proposed in this research can be efficiently executed in a round-the-clock manner with minimal human effort. Such synthesis methods and high-quality data sets could be applied for various purposes, including the study of boundary layer development, initiation of afternoon thunderstorms, air pollutant dispersion, numerical model verification, and real-time monitoring of aviation safety in airports.
Liou et al. (Tue,) studied this question.