Atmospheric boundary layer monitoring at the Meteorological Observatory Lindenberg as a part of the "Lindenberg Column": Facilities and selected results

Abstract

Systematic aerological soundings and related technological development and scientific interpretation have been performed at the Meteorological Observatory Lindenberg (MOL) since the beginning of the last century. These activities were always connected with the practical demands of weather forecasting and of climatological research. During the last decade the reduction of the grid size in numerical weather prediction models, the requirements of nowcasting and an increasingly detailed physical description of the climate system in numerical models created the need for comprehensive data on land surface and boundary layer processes. Taking into account this tendency, new experimental facilities for boundary layer investigations were installed at the MOL in addition to the complex on ground-based remote sensing systems and standard radiosoundings. These include a special boundary layer field site (in German: Grenzschichtmessfeld = GM), networks of energy budget stations, rain gauges and radiation sensors and a large-aperture scintillometer. These facilities are briefly characterised and a few examples from continuous long-term measurements and from case studies of boundary layer parameters are presented. The boundary layer measurements as an integral part of the observatory's monitoring program supplemented by measuring campaigns are an important contribution to the DWD-strategy observation and simulation. They have been the basis for the integration of the MOL as a reference site within different international research programs steered by WMO-WCRP.