This Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) will support the acquisition of meteorological measurements (vertical profiles) during the Megacity Impacts on Regional and Global Environments (MIRAGE) field campaign. The University of Alabama team will install and operate a 915 MHz wind profiler, a 12-channel microwave radiometer, and a lidar ceilometer at the CENICA supersite during MIRAGE. These systems will operate continuously, and will provide wind, thermodynamic, and aerosol information on atmospheric boundary layer and lower free tropospheric structure and evolution. Shortly after the conclusion of the project, quality-controlled data sets will be made available to MIRAGE scientific investigators. The 915 MHz wind profiler will be upgraded for optimal wind profiling performance (i.e., maximize the height to which wind profiles are obtained) during the MIRAGE field campaign.
The entire MIRAGE science team will benefit from this data set, and it will be crucial for flight planning for the airborne portion of the program. The data collected will be used in two classes at UAH, Ground-Based Remote Sensing and Boundary Layer Meteorology.
