Synopsis: Advances in Doppler Lidar technologies to study complex land/atmosphere interactions is crucial for applications that require understanding the dynamics of boundary layer phenomena. Doppler Lidar observations made from mobile platforms and the expansion of land- based observational networks can improve the representativeness of the measurements and be used to study spatially variable atmospheric flows. Applications to numerical weather forecasting, wind energy, urban planning, wildfire behaviors, air quality and urban energy cycles are a few examples where advancements in Doppler wind Lidar technologies can provide added value.

The student is to carry out research to evaluate the performance of an airborne Doppler Lidar using data collected from a NOAA Twin Otter during winter and spring of 2018. His work will include evaluation of internal navigation/guidance data, Doppler Lidar performance and sensitivity, evaluation of different scan scenarios to retrieve horizontal wind profiles.