Towards improved turbulence estimation with Doppler wind lidar VAD scans

Abstract. The retrieval of turbulence parameters with profiling Doppler wind lidars (DWL) is of high interest for boundarylayer meteorology and its applications. The DWL measurements extend beyond the observations with meteorological masts and are comparably flexible in their installation. Velocity-azimuth display (VAD) type scans can be used to retrieve turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation rate through a fit of measured azimuth structure functions to a theoretical model. At the elevation angle of 35.3° it is also possible to derive TKE. We show in this study how modifications to existing methods allow to retrieve TKE and its dissipation rate even with a small number of scans, how a simple correction for advection improves the results at low altitudes and that VAD scans at different elevation angles with the same instrument provide comparable results of TKE dissipation rate after all filters and corrections. For this purpose, data of two experiments are utilized: First, measurements at the Observatory Lindenberg – Richard-Asmann Observatory (MOL-RAO) are used for validation of the DWL retrieval with sonic anemometers on a meteorological mast. Second, distributed measurements of three DWL during the CoMet campaign are analyzed and compared to in-situ measurements of the DLR Cessna Grand Caravan 208B. The comparison to in-situ instruments shows that the methods to improve turbulence retrievals from VAD scans introduced in this study are effective, especially at low altitudes and for narrow cone angles, but it also shows the limits of turbulence measurement with state-ofthe-art DWL in low turbulence regimes.