The Boulder Atmospheric Observatory

Abstract

The Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO) is a unique research facility for studying the planetary boundary layer and for testing and calibrating atmospheric sensors. The facility includes a 300 m tower instrumented with fast- and slow-response sensors, a variety of remote sensing systems, and a real-time processing and display capability that greatly reduces analysis time for scientists working with current or archived data. In the past four years of operation the BAO has been the site of several large cooperative experiments and numerous smaller ones. Details of the data acquisition, processing and archiving schemes are presented. Results of studies conducted and opportunities for future investigations are also described.