Weather-watching Doppler lidar instrument installed over Washington
23 Apr 2021
NIST and Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration measuring lower atmosphere wind flow for âgreenhouseâ gas emissions research.
NOAA s Scott Sandberg beside the new lidar system.The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have installed a Doppler lidar instrument to an existing weather station on top of the Department of Commerceâs Herbert Clark Hoover Building in Washington, D.C., to measure wind flow and turbulence in the lowest part of the atmosphere for a research project studying greenhouse gas emissions in the capital area.
Commerce Building Now Part of NOAA, NIST Weather and Greenhouse Gas Tracking Network Details
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The Doppler lidar will provide a highly localized ability to track the dispersion of pollutants or hazardous substances in the urban landscape.
NOAA and NIST have installed a Doppler lidar instrument to an existing weather station on top of the Department of Commerce’s Herbert Clark Hoover Building in Washington, D.C. to measure wind flow and turbulence in the lowest part of the atmosphere for a research project studying greenhouse gas emissions in the Capitol area.
Lidar, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing method that uses the light from a pulsed laser reflected off distant objects to make measurements of the atmosphere, similar to how radar uses radio waves to gather information on thunderstorms. Scanning Doppler lidars can make high-resolution measurements of horizontal winds, and resolve turbulent processes in th
Credit: T. Boyle/NIST
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have installed a Doppler lidar instrument to an existing weather station on top of the Department of Commerce’s Herbert Clark Hoover Building in Washington, D.C., to measure wind flow and turbulence in the lowest part of the atmosphere for a research project studying greenhouse gas emissions in the capital area.
Lidar, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing method that uses the light from a pulsed laser reflected off distant objects to make measurements of the atmosphere, similar to how radar uses radio waves to gather information on thunderstorms. Scanning Doppler lidars can make high-resolution measurements of horizontal winds, and resolve turbulent processes in the atmosphere to generate data required by sophisticated atmospheric transport models.