SOUSY

SOUnding SYstem for atmospheric structure and dymanics

Principle of measurement

VHF - Radars
Stationary SOUSY VHF Radar / Harz
Mobile SOUSY VHF Radar

Observational Results

A host of dynamical processes occur in the troposphere, stratosphere and mesosphere particularly in the micro- and mesoscale ranges, which can be investigated with high temporal and spatial resolution measurements using radar and lidar methods. Microscale motions have characteristic sizes extending to several hundred meters. Their horizontal and vertical velocity components are typically of the same order of magnitude and they mainly comprise three kinds of turbulence, which differ due to their generating processes: turbulence in the planetary boundary layer, turbulence in clouds, and turbulence in the 'cloudless' region above the boundary layer. Mesoscale motions have horizontal dimensions extending up to several hundred kilometers, and include such phenomena as frontal disturbances, jet streams, atmospheric waves, and shear instabilities. These processes are too small to be resolved using conventional synoptic observational networks and yet too large to be effectively studied using single observational sites.

Micro- and mesoscale processes are coupled together as well as with larger scale processes such as synoptic disturbances, atmospheric tides, planetary waves, and global circulation patterns. Examples of the coupling between micro- and mesoscale processes that can be studied using VHF radar methods include the productions of shear and convective instablities in the polar and subtropical jet stream, as well as the generation of instabilities through gravity waves and tides in the mesosphere.

	SOUSY VHF Radar (Harz) (1977 - present)
	SOUSY VHF Radar (mobile) (1980 - present)
	Members and staff of the SOUSY research group