Sodar Sounding of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer: Review of Studies at the Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract

Acoustic sounders (sodars) are the simplest and economically most effective devices for the ground-based remote sensing of the lower troposphere. Using sodars, a vast amount of knowledge about the structure and dynamics of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) has been obtained. The principal physics of sodar sounding was given by A.M. Obukhov in two short theoretical articles published in the Reports of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1941: “On the Scattering of Sound in a Turbulent Flow” and “On the Distribution of Energy in the Spectrum of a Turbulent Flow.” In the late 1950s, Obukhov initiated the development of theoretical and experimental studies of sound scattering by turbulence, as well as a practical sodar sounding of the ABL at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAPh). The present work is a short review of sodar applications in studies of the ABL based on results obtained at IAPh in the 1980s–2000s. The results of recent studies of low-level jets and Kelvin–Helmholtz billows in the stable stratified ABL are described in more detail.