Methodology for determining multilayered temperature inversions

Abstract

Abstract. The atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) exhibit multilayered thermal structure especially in polar atmosphere during extreme winters. These thermal inversions are originated based on the combined forcing of local and large scale synoptic meteorology. At the local scale the thermal inversion layer forms near the surface and plays a central role in controlling the surface radiative cooling; however, depending upon the large scale synoptic meteorological forcing, an upper level thermal inversion can also exist topping the local ABL. In this article a numerical methodology is developed to determine all-thermal inversion layers present in a given temperature profile and deduce some of their thermodynamic properties. The algorithm extract from the temperature profile the most important temperature variations defining thermal layers. This is accomplished by a inear interpolation function of variable length that minimizes an error function. The algorithm functionality is demonstrated on actual radiosonde profiles to deduce all-present inversion layers with an error fraction set independently.