Planetary boundary layer height estimation using satellite remote sensing techniques

• Main Author: Hee, Angeline Xin Yi
• Other Authors: Erry Gunawan
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/78145
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) is the lowest layer in the Troposphere. It is directly influenced by the Earth’s surface and it is where interactions between the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere happens. The interactions are through the exchanges of heat, momentum, moisture, and chemical constituents between the surface and free atmosphere. The greatest atmospheric kinetic energy is associated with this layer.[1] There are various methods to measure PBL height. Methods include aircraft, SODAR, wind profilers, lidar, radiosonde and Global Positioning System (GPS) radio occultation.[2] In this project, the method of GPS radio occultation would be explored. The data will be obtained from Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) and Moving Average Window will be the method to derive the height of PBL. MATLAB software will be the main programming language used for this project. It is used for the analysis of the data, to develop the algorithm to compute the values and plot the graphs for PBLH. COSMIC Radio Occultation (RO) data processed by COSMIC Data Analysis and Archive Center (CDAAC), ‘wetPrf’ atmospheric occultation profile from January 2015 to December 2017, will be used in the statistical analysis of PBL height. After PBL height map is determined, an analysis of the results will be discussed.