BOUNDARY-LAYER HEIGHT ESTIMATED BY CEILOMETER

Boundary-layer height, being one of the most important parameters in air-quality modeling, can be evaluated by several different device and methods. However, none of these methods alone can be used as an operative regime. The idealized 3-step method partly fulfills the gap. The method fits the backscattering profile of ceilometer measurements into a weighted profile of three error functions, thus it has potential for determining three vertical aerosol layer heights including boundary-layer height, residual layer and surface layer. The method has been tested by ceilometer and radiosounding monitoring data of the Helsinki Testbed Campaign. The results show a strong correlation between the 3-step method and soundings (correlation coefficient r = 0.89, N = 89)