A modular wind profile retrieval software for heterogeneous Doppler lidar measurements

Abstract. Retrieving wind profiles from Doppler lidar radial velocities requires processing software tools. The heterogeneity of Doppler lidar types and data acquisition settings, as well as scan patterns applied for wind profiling, make wind profile processing challenging. Addressing this challenge, a new modular open-source wind profile retrieval software is presented: the Atmospheric Profile Processing toolKIT (AtmoProKIT). The software calculates quality controlled wind profiles from heterogeneous Doppler lidar data, i.e. independent of the system type, data acquisition settings or the scan pattern applied. Ingestion of heterogeneous data is enabled by the definition of a standardized level 1 data format for the measurements, from which level 2 wind profiles are retrieved. Processing flexibility is enabled through the combination of modular processing steps in module chains. Modifications are possible by individually arranging modules, adding calculation modules or adjusting processing parameters. The documentation of the processing steps in the result’s metadata ensures the traceability of the results. A standard module chain is presented, which allows for straightforward wind profile retrieval for common Doppler lidar measurement scenarios without the need for coding. The results provided by the standard module chain are validated against radiosondes for three common Doppler lidar systems in differing atmospheric conditions. AtmoProKIT is provided as open-source Python code and includes demonstration examples, allowing for an easy use and future collaborative modification.