Seasonal variability of cirrus depolarization properties derived from CALIPSO lidar measurements over Beijing in China

The seasonal variability of cirrus depolarization ratio and its altitude at the region of Beijing （39.93°N, 116.43°E, the capital of China） are presented. From the results obtained from the cloud aerosol lidar and infrared pathfinder satellite observations lidar measurements, it appears that the values of depolarization ratio and altitude of cirrus are generally higher in autumn and summer than those in spring and winter, and the cirrus altitude is modulated by the height of tropopause. Additionally, the depolarization ratio tends to linearly vary with the increase of altitude and the decrease of temperature.

Feedforward Control for Wind Turbine Load Reduction with Pseudo-LIDAR Measurement

A gain-scheduled feedforward controller, based on pseudo-LIDAR （light detection and ranging） wind speed measurement, is designed to augment the baseline feedback controller for wind turbine＇s load reduction in above rated operation. The pseudo-LIDAR measurement data are generated from a commercial software- Bladed using a designed sampling strategy. The nonlinear wind turbine model has been simplified and linearised at a set of equilibrium operating points. The feedforward controller is firstly developed based on a linearised model at an above rated wind speed, and then expanded to the full above rated operational envelope by employing gain scheduling strategy. The combined feedforward and baseline feedback control is simulated on a 5MW industrial wind turbine model. Simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed control strategy can improve the rotor and tower load reduction performance for large wind turbines.

Atmospheric NO_2 Concentration Measurements Using Differential Absorption Lidar Technique

Using the Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) technique, two types of approaches, namely, reflection from retroreflector / topographic target and backscatter from atmosphere, are available for studying remotely the atmospheric NO, concentration. The Argon ion lidar system at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, India has been used for the measurements by following both the path-averaged and range-resolved approaches. For the former, a topographic target (hill) is used for determining path-averaged surface concentration. In the latter, spectral properties of atmospheric attenuation is used for making range-resolved measurements in the surface layer. The results of the observations collected by following both approaches are presented. The average surface NO2 concentration was found to vary between 0.01 and 0.105 ppm and the range-resolved measurements exhibited higher values suggesting treatment of the lidar data for scattering and extinction effects due to atmospheric aerosols and air molecules, and atmospheric turbulence. Certain modifications that are suggested to the experimental set-up, data acquisition and analysis to improve the measurements are briefly described.

A new differential absorption lidar for NO_2 measurements using Raman-shifted technique

Based on Raman-shifted wavelengths of D2 and CHr pumped by third harmonic of Nd:YAG laser, a differential absorption lidar was presented in this paper and had been constructed for probing environmental NO2 concentration. NO2 experimental measurements were carried out at Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics in Hefei. Some NO2 measurement results were given and discussed.

Measuring boundary-layer height under clear and cloudy conditions using three instruments

Boundary-layer height （BLH） under clear, altostratus and low stratus cloud conditions were measured by GPS sounding, wind profiler radar, and micro-pulse lidar during the atmospheric radiation measurement experiment from Sep. to Dec. 2008 in Shouxian, Anhui, China. Results showed that during daytime or nighttime, regardless of cloud conditions, the GPS sounding was the most accurate method for measuring BLH. Unfortunately, because of the long time gap between launchings, sounding data did not capture the diurnal evolution of the BLH. Thus, wind profile radar emerged as a promising instrument for direct and continuous measurement of the mixing height during the daytime, accurately determining BLH using the structure parameter of the electromagnetic refractive index. However, during nighttime, radar was limited by weak signal extraction and did not work well for determining the BLH of the stable boundary layer, often recording the BLH of the residual layer. While micro-pulse lidar recorded the evolution of BLH, it overestimated the BLH of the stable boundary layer. This method also failed to work under cloudy conditions because of the influence of water vapor. Future work needs to develop a method to determine BLH that combines the complimentary features of all three algorithms.