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 |