An Overview of the Mobile Profiler System: Preliminary Results from Field Tests during the Los Angeles Free-Radical Study

Abstract

The System Demonstration and Integration Division of the Environmental Technology Laboratory and the Battlefield Environment Directorate of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory have designed and built the Mobile Profiler System (MPS).The MPS is an integrated system of ground-based and satellite-borne remote sensors that measure nearly continuous wind and temperature profiles from the surface up through the troposphere. Ground-based sensors include a 924-MHz phased-array wind and temperature profiler, a four-channel microwave radiometer, a surface meteorological tower, and a balloon sounding system. Although MPS was initially developed for military applications, the nonmilitary environmental applications are numerous and significant. This paper provides an overview of the instrumentation, software networking, data processing, data integration, and near real-time data display capabilities currently incorporated into the MPS. Initial results from the first field tests (Los Angeles Free-Radical Study, 3?24 September 1993) demonstrate the ability of MPS to observe the complex meteorological structures associated with high-pollution events within the Los Angeles Basin.