Determination of the smoke-plume heights with scanning lidar using alternative functions for establishing the atmospheric heterogeneity locations
| Authors: | Vladimir Kovalev, Alexander Petkov, Cyle E. Wold, WeiMin M. Hao |
| Year: | 2010 |
| Type: | Miscellaneous Publication |
| Station: | Rocky Mountain Research Station |
| Source: | In: Proceedings of the 25th International Laser Radar Conference; 5-9 July 2010; St. Petersburg, Russia. Tomsk: Publishing House of IAO SB RAS. p. 71-74. |
Abstract
Data-processing techniques for the scanning lidar data are considered that allow determining the upper and lower boundaries of the smoke plume or smoke layering in the vicinity of wildfires. The task is fulfilled by utilizing the Atmospheric Heterogeneity Height Indicator (AHHI). The AHHI is a histogram, which shows a number of heterogeneity events defined by scanning lidar at the consecutive height intervals in a heterogeneous atmosphere. Different variants of creating the AAHI plots for investigating the atmospheres contaminated with the smoke plume are considered. Because the boundaries of the dispersed smoke plume are often not well defined, user-defined criteria are considered, which allow utilizing the automatic data processing procedure. The smoke boundary height is defined as the location where a special function, determined from the scanning lidar signals, varies within acceptable limits, and the standard deviation of the calculated height does not exceed an established value. The best results are achieved when different variants of the AHHI are used to determine the upper and the lower height of the smoke plume.