Determination of Mixing Heights from Data Collected during the 1985 SCCCAMP Field Program

Abstract

As part of the overall South-Central Coast Cooperative Aerometric Monitoring Program (SCCCAMP) data analysis project, available meteorological and air quality sounding data from four intensive periods during the six-week field study were analyzed to develop a database for mixing information. Described here are the methods used in reducing and interpreting the information for mixing height. Also described is the database of mixing heights throughout the SCCCAMP study region that was generated. While the focus of the research was development of a database, review of the data showed there was considerable variability in the mixing height throughout the study region, with the over-land regions reflecting the diurnal changes and the over-water regions influenced more by the mesoscale and synoptic meteorological patterns. During the periods studied, the offshore mixing heights were generally too shallow for the Doppler acoustic sounders and aircraft to ?see? low enough to observe the top of the surface mixed layer. Variations in mixing height offshore were also not well represented by the mixing heights observed over land.