This profiler network is part of the ICARTT 2004 Surface Network sites. The design of the integrated wind profiler observing system network is driven by two primary and somewhat competing objectives:
- to characterize in 2004 and to develop a climatology of boundary-layer structure along the New England coast (i.e., an ABL-scale issue)
- to measure lower tropospheric winds with sufficient horizontal resolution to characterize transport corridors in the Northeast (i.e., a regional-scale issue).
The first objective is important to understand the vertical distribution of pollutants, especially in the coastal zone, and to place the relatively short field programs of 2002 and 2004 into a climatological context. The second objective addresses one of the primary science questions for 2004: where does air pollution measured in the Northeast originate? These objectives should be met by the proposed regional network of approximately fourteen wind profilers and two collocated vertically pointing unattended ozone/aerosol lidars.