PNNL

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program’s Raman lidar at the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) site in north-central Oklahoma has collected water vapor mixing ratio (q) profile data more than 90% of the time since October 2004. Three hundred (300) cases were identified where the convective boundary layer was quasi-stationary and well-mixed for a 2-hour period, and q mean, variance, third order moment, and skewness profiles were derived from the 10-s, 75-m resolution data. These cases span the entire calendar year, and demonstrate that the q variance profiles at the mixed layer (ML) top changes seasonally, but is more related to the gradient of q across the interfacial layer. The q variance at the top of the ML shows only weak correlations (r