Observations of wind fields and atmospheric canopy waves with scanning aerosol lidar 

Shane D. Mayor
Associate Professor
California State University Chico 

A wide variety of atmospheric lidars exist and a rare species is the scanning aerosol lidar.  This seminar will describe a few generations of scanning aerosol lidars and their vices and virtues.  The largest merit of scanning aerosol lidars is the ability to provide spatial imagery of boundary layer structure and evolution especially in critical regions such as the surface layer and the entrainment zone.  When the scan update rate is sufficiently large, it is possible to deduce the motion of small aerosol features and derive vector wind fields.  The seminar will conclude by showing observations of atmospheric canopy waves from the Canopy Horizontal Array Turbulence Study (CHATS).  Ongoing analysis of that data is aimed at improving our understanding of the interplay between waves and turbulence over forest canopies during stably stratified conditions.