Boundary layer height above the Great Barrier Reef studied using drone and Mini-Micropulse LiDAR measurements

Robert G. Ryan; Christian Eckert; Brendan P. Kelaher; Daniel P. Harrison; Robyn Schofield

doi:10.1071/ES24008

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Boundary layer height above the Great Barrier Reef studied using drone and Mini-Micropulse LiDAR measurements

Robert G. Ryan

^A ^* , Christian Eckert ^B , Brendan P. Kelaher ^B , Daniel P. Harrison ^B and Robyn Schofield

^A

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic. 3010, Australia.

^B National Marine Science Centre, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, NSW 2450, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: rryan1@unimelb.edu.au

Handling Editor: Peter May

Journal of Southern Hemisphere Earth Systems Science 74, ES24008 https://doi.org/10.1071/ES24008

Submitted: 18 April 2024 Accepted: 23 August 2024 Published: 10 October 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Bureau of Meteorology. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

The planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) is an important meteorological feature defining the boundary between surface processes and the free troposphere. The PBLH plays a key role in cloud formation and the vertical extent of aerosols and air pollutants. Measurements of PBLH were made by meteorological sensors mounted to a multi-copter drone over the southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia. We then compared these drone-based measurements to remote-sensed PBLH observations, using a Mini-Micropulse (MP) LiDAR system. Across the measurement campaign (1 March–2 April 2023), the mean PBLH value using the drones was 801 ± 203 m. Using the gradient method for MP LiDAR normalised relative backscatter profiles, the mean PBLH was 811 ± 260 m. Using an ideal MP LiDAR profile fitting method the mean was 912 ± 202 m and using a wavelet covariance transform method the mean was 862 ± 298 m. The boundary layer was consistently well mixed, without convective instability or a strong diurnal PBLH cycle. The three MP LiDAR methods compared well to the drone measurements overall with Pearson’s R correlation coefficients >0.60; however, estimates from the MP LiDAR were typically ~10% higher than from the drone. These results indicate congruence between the backscatter- and thermodynamically derived PBLH at One Tree Island, which is robust to variations in sampling conditions and the choice of MP LiDAR PBLH retrieval method.

Keywords: atmospheric mixing, atmospheric structure, drones, Great Barrier Reef, LiDAR, One Tree Island, PBLH, planetary boundary layer height, remote sensing.

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