Comparison of stratospheric temperatures from several lidars, using National Meteorological Center and microwave limb sounder data as transfer references

Abstract

Stratospheric temperatures derived from five different lidars are compared. Although the lidars are in five separate geographic locations, the evaluation is accomplished by comparing each of the sets of lidar data taken over the course of a year (1991–1992) with temperatures interpolated to each location from daily global temperature analyses from the National Meteorological Center (NMC). Average differences between the lidars and NMC temperatures vary for the different lidars by up to 6.7 K. Part of this large average temperature difference is shown to be due to the real temperature variation throughout the day, and the different times of observation of the NMC data and each of the lidar systems. Microwave limb sounder (MLS) data from the upper atmosphere research satellite are used to model the diurnal and semidiurnal variations in temperature for each lidar location, for each season. After adjusting for the temperature changes caused by variations in observation time, average temperature differences are reduced among four of the five lidars, compared with the NMC temperatures, but still vary by as much as 3.9 K at stratospheric altitudes between 30 and 45 km. Results of direct comparisons at two permanent lidar sites with a mobile lidar show that sometimes agreement within 1 to 2 K is achieved, but for other cases, larger average differences are seen. Since the precision of lidar temperatures has been estimated to be better than 1 K, further research is needed to reconcile this small expected error with the larger average differences deduced here using measurements made under operational conditions.

A 14-year monthly climatology and trend in the 35–65km altitude range from Rayleigh Lidar temperature measurements at a low latitude station

“…The possibility of measurements of temperature and density with high time and height resolution has led to a variety of studies involving the temperature climatology at middle latitude (Hauchecorne et al, 1991;Adriani et al, 1991;Gobbi et al, 1995), low and tropical latitudes (Siva Kumar et al, 2003;Nee et al, 2002;Chang et al, 2005) and high latitude (Kawahara et al, 2004). Also, studies involving planetary waves (Hauchecorne and Chanin, 1982;Kishore et al, 2006), comparison with satellite measurements (Wild et al, 1995;Remsberg et al, 2002;Siva Kumar et al, 2003) and several studies of the mesospheric temperature inversion layers (Hauchecorne et al, 1987;Leblanc and Hauchecorne, 1997;Siva Kumar et al, 2001;Liu and Meriwether, 2004;Fadnavis and Beig, 2004) have been carried out in the past few years. Although many short-term Rayleigh temperature measurements have been reported around the world, only a few climatological and long-term trend studies have been carried out at middle latitude (441N) by Hauchecorne et al (1991) and at (431N) by Argall and Sica (2007), and at low and middle latitudes (44.…”

Comparison and synergy of stratospheric ozone measurements by satellite limb sounders and the ground-based microwave radiometer SOMORA

“…For simplicity the differencing of difference profiles shall be named double differencing. Double differencing is not a new invention, e.g., Wild et al (1995) compared stratospheric temperature measurements of several lidars using data from National Meteorological Center analyses and microwave limb sounders as transfer references. For optimization of the cross-validation of satellite experiments and ground station networks, we should try to get a mathematical formulation of the double differencing method and should analyze the benefits, limits, and failures.…”

Review of ozone and temperature lidar validations performed within the framework of the Network for the Detection of Stratospheric Change

“…The lidars were not operated simultaneously and investigations using NCEP analyses revealed an important role of atmospheric tides 42 that should be taken into account. A larger difference, as large as 5 K, that could not be attributed to tides was noted at 30 km.…”

“…Several lidars located at mid-latitude sites have been compared by Wild et al 42 using NCEP data as a geographical transfer reference. This study included the NDSC lidars at TMF and OHP.…”