Application and Testing of the Extended-Kalman-Filtering Technique for Determining the Planetary Boundary-Layer Height over Athens, Greece

• Published in: Boundary-layer meteorology 2020-07, Vol.176 (1), p.125-147
• Main Authors: Kokkalis, Panagiotis, Alexiou, Dimitrios, Papayannis, Alexandros, Rocadenbosch, Francesc, Soupiona, Ourania, Raptis, Panagiotis-Ioannis, Mylonaki, Maria, Tzanis, Chris G., Christodoulakis, John
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Atmospheric Sciences; Boundary layer height; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Growth rate; Height; Kalman filters; Lidar; Meteorology; Methods; Optical radar; Planetary evolution; Radiosonde data; Radiosondes; Remote sensing; Research Article
• ISSN: 0006-8314; 1573-1472
• DOI: 10.1007/s10546-020-00514-z

We investigate the temporal evolution of the planetary boundary-layer (PBL) height over the basin of Athens, Greece, during a 6-year period (2011–2016), using data from a Raman lidar system. The range-corrected lidar signals are selected around local noon (1200 UTC) and midnight (0000 UTC), for a total of 332 cases: 165 days and 167 nights. In this dataset, the extended-Kalman filtering technique is applied and tested for the determination of the PBL height. Several well-established techniques for the PBL height estimation based on lidar data are also tested for a total of 35 cases. The lidar-derived PBL heights are compared to those derived from radiosonde data. The mean PBL height over Athens is found to be 1617 ± 324 m at 1200 UTC and 892 ± 130 m at 0000 UTC for the period examined, while the mean PBL-height growth rate is found to be 170 ± 64 m h −1 and 90 ± 17 m h −1 during daytime and night-time, respectively.