Operational use of sodar information in nowcasting

Abstract

The inversion height is a very important parameter for air pollution control and forecasting. Because of the fact that most of the inversions are below 300–500 m, only a SODAR and not a usual radiosonde can measure this parameter. The developed code for SODAR information is a good possibility to obtain climatological information as well as a real time picture of the spatial distribution of the structure features of the atmospheric boundary layer. It can be used for forcasting of parameters like inversion height and therefore for operational decision making by the authorities of environmental services.

In nowcasting the direct view on the backscatter echo structure is much more helpful than code information. The SODAR registration shows many interesting structures of the atmospheric boundary layer. With some experience there should be much more results for possible forecasting. On the other hand there are a lot of meteorological situations (convective conditions, summer time) where the SODAR gives no new or applicable information. But during stable stratification due to missing RADAR data and with hardly usable satellite based IR pictures, SODAR gives necessary information together with other ground-based data. One problem of the operational use of a SODAR is to give information to the meteorologist only in such situations when the application of a SODAR is helpful.