Aiborne Lidar Operations

Following is a list of objectives that we plan to address with the airborne ozone lidar onboard the DeHavilland Caribou cargo aircraft platform. Also listed are the type of flight pattern and times of day we plan to fly, an allocation of flight hours, and supportive measurements from other study participants. The allocation of flight hours is tentative and subject to change depending on the meteorological conditions we will encounter during the study.

Objective Flight pattern Time of day Flight time allocation
(48 h total)
Coordinated / supportive measurements
1. Urban plume     20 h  
vertical and horizontal extent of urban plume / heat island (stagnation and light-wind cases) grid (A) early morning - mid afternoon 12 h (3 flights) helicopter, P3, wind profiler, surface temps
redistribution of ozone at night, ozone losses at night grid (A), box (B) evening - early night hours 8 h (2 flights) profiler trajectories, G1, P3, ground-based ozone lidar, temperature profiles
gains and losses of ozone in BL due to turbulent transport, deposition, fumigation, ozone budget in urban plume grid (A) with 2 long perpendicular flight legs day part of other daytime urban plume flights surface ozone fluxes, ground-based ozone lidar, ozone production rates (P3, helicopter, surface chemistry stations), wind profiler
venting of ozone thru clouds and during evening collapse of BL box (B) afternoon - evening transition part of other PM flight wind profiler, P3, G1
horizontal transport and modification of urban plume on high-wind days grid (A) following the plume morning - mid afternoon optional, may be substituted for stagnation flight P3
2. Power plant plumes     16 h  
size and shape, location with respect to BL height, ozone production rates multiple plume crossings to 150 km downwind of the plant (D) daytime 8 h (2 flights) P3, helicopter, wind profiler
temporal evolution of plume during evening transition box (B), repeat same 2 transects evening transition 2 h (0.5 flights) wind profiler, temp profiles, P3, G1
plume behavior at night, fresh and old plumes multiple plume crossings (D) early night hours 6 h (1.5 flights) P3, G1, wind profiler, temp profiles
3. BL height / subregional characteristics     8 h  
spatial variability of BL height, correlate with surface characteristics box (B) or butterfly (C) daytime 8 h (2 flights) surface fluxes, profiler zi, overfly profiler locations and surface flux stations, CASA radiometer
linkage between BL height and total ozone column content box (B) or butterfly (C) daytime parallel with above  
contrast between urban and rural ozone levels and distributions box (B) or butterfly (C) daytime parallel with above P3, helicopter
4. Ozone - aerosol linkages     2 h  
ozone - aerosol backscatter correlation any day and night on all flights  
use ozone - aerosol correlation to determine origin of ozone in lower free troposphere (stratosphere or BL) box (B) day or night 2 h
(part of 1 flight)
other relevant species (CO etc.) from P3, G1
5. Intercomparisons     2 h  
ozone and aerosol intercomparisons with other aircraft and surface stations any day 2 h
(part of 1 flight),
overfly CFA
P3, G1, helicopter, ground-based lidar and surface in-situ measurements