scope:

RASS systems have successfully been used for many years for the remote determination of vertical temperature profiles. They complement conventional instrumentation as they lend themselves to a large number of measurement tasks that cannot be fulfilled adequately with in-situ or point measurement devices or for which masts or towers are not suitable for technical, administrative or economical reasons.

The use of RASS systems is particularly advantageous for

• measurement of temperature in atmospheric layers up to several kilometers height

• determination of the thermal stability of the atmosphere

• pursuit of the development and decay of convective boundary layers (height of the mixing layer)

• determination of the height and structure of stable boundary layers

• determination of the altitude and strength of detached inversions

• measurement of turbulent flows in the atmospheric boundary layer

• measurement of wind profiles in noisy areas or in sites with potentially large radar echoes where the use of sodar and radar systems is restricted

• measurements in heavy weather conditions

The following applications are particularly important:

• routine temperature profiling from aerological stations

• production of data for the use in numerical dispersion models, e. g., in connection with licensing procedures under BImSchG, 9. BImSchV and TA Luft: time series calculation (TA Luft, Annex 3 Clause 1), Monin-Obukhov length (TA Luft, Annex 3 Clause 8. 4), height of the mixing layer (TA Luft, Annex 3 Clause 8.5)

• production of data for site approval certificates for ambient air quality control and environmental compatibility assessment

• flight safety and aviation weather services including the quantitative determination even of extreme ground inversions

• plant monitoring during regular and irregular operations

• investigation of the atmospheric boundary layer

• replacement and complementation of investigations made with meteorological towers, tether balloons and aircrafts

Section 8 gives some examples of applications of RASS in these fields.