|
REAL was delivered safely to the study site in California
on a newly refurbished air-ride trailer on 7 March 2007 after a 1200 mile journey from Boulder.
The goal of the deployment is to observe coherent structures (sweeps,
ejections) in everyday turbulent flow over the walnut orchard located 1.5
km south of the lidar site. Fine-scale in situ
measurements are simultaneously being collecting from instrumented towers
inside the orchard. In addition to observing fine-scale structure of the
turbulence near the top of the canopy, REAL's
data will help put the microscale measurements
into the context of the larger atmospheric environment--such as boundary
layer depth and local mesoscale circulations. We
also hope to correlate the lidar's backscatter
intensity data to in situ aerosol particle count data collected by
scientists in TIIMES.
This deployment of REAL is different from previous ones in that we are
trying to operate it continuously and unattended from an internet
connection. The satellite antenna on the roof of the tan seatainer is REAL's
communication link. Quicklook scan images are
uploaded to NCAR periodically and are available for viewing here.
The CHATS experiment will occur in two phases: From March 17 to April 14
and from May 13 to June 9. These phases correspond to periods with and without
leaves on the trees. A one month break is scheduled April 15 to May
12. We hope to run continuously
through all three periods permitting sufficient resources.
|
