Temperature lidar measurements from 1 to 105 km altitude using resonance, Rayleigh, and Rotational Raman scattering

[摘要] For the first time, three different temperature lidar methods arecombined to obtain time-resolved complete temperature profileswith high altitude resolution over an altitude range from theplanetary boundary layer up to the lower thermosphere (about1–105 km). The Leibniz-Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) atKühlungsborn, Germany (54° N, 12° E)operates two lidar instruments, using three different temperaturemeasurement methods, optimized for three altitude ranges:(1) Probing the spectral Doppler broadening of the potassiumD₁ resonance lines with a tunable narrow-band laser allowsatmospheric temperature profiles to be determined at metal layeraltitudes (80–105 km). (2) Between about 20 and 90 km,temperatures were calculated from Rayleigh backscattering by airmolecules, where the upper start values for the calculationalgorithm were taken from the potassium lidar results. Correctionmethods have been applied to account for, e.g. Rayleighextinction or Mie scattering of aerosols below about 32 km. (3) Ataltitudes below about 25 km, backscattering in the RotationalRaman lines is strong enough to obtain temperatures by measuringthe temperature dependent spectral shape of the Rotational Ramanspectrum. This method works well down to about 1 km. Theinstrumental configurations of the IAP lidars were optimized for a3–6 km overlap of the temperature profiles at the methodtransition altitudes. We present two night-long measurements withclear wave structures propagating from the lower stratosphere upto the lower thermosphere.

[学科分类] 大气科学