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Comparison of Boundary-Layer Profiles and Layer Detection by AMDAR and WTR/RASS at Frankfurt Airport

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Abstract

At Frankfurt airport (EDDF) vertical soundings of the lower atmosphere from two independent sources are available. One of them is a wind and temperature profiler (wind temperature radar and radio acoustic sounding system, WTR/RASS) located at the western end of the main pair of runways. The second source is aircraft meteorological data relay (AMDAR), i.e. measurements operationally collected by approaching and departing aircraft. Together, both offer a rare opportunity to compare the performance of these widely used systems. We use 1 year of continuous data to calculate systematic temperature and wind vector differences between both measurement systems. The differences show a clear season-dependent structure in conjunction with typical inversion heights. Possible causes for this behaviour are discussed. Second, we compare the ability of both systems to identify inversion and wind-shear layers above the airport. AMDAR-detected layers are typically higher than wind profiler detections. The layer base is usually detected with more agreement than the top. The mutual probability of detection of inversions is found to be mostly between 40 and 60%.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universität Trier, Fachbereich VI, Umweltmeteorologie, 54286, Trier, Germany

    Clemens Drüe

  2. Institut für Meteorologie und Klimatologie, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Herrenhäuser Str. 2, 30419, Hannover, Germany

    Thomas Hauf

  3. Deutscher Wetterdienst, Referat TI 2.2, Frankfurter Str. 135, 63067, Offenbach, Germany

    Axel Hoff

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  1. Clemens Drüe
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  2. Thomas Hauf
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  3. Axel Hoff
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Correspondence to Clemens Drüe.

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Drüe, C., Hauf, T. & Hoff, A. Comparison of Boundary-Layer Profiles and Layer Detection by AMDAR and WTR/RASS at Frankfurt Airport. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 135, 407–432 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-010-9485-0

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