A comparison of Rayleigh and sodium lidar temperature climatologies

Abstract

Abstract.Temperature measurements from the PCL Rayleigh lidar located near London, Canada, taken during the 11 year period from 1994 to 2004 are used to form a temperature climatology of the middle atmosphere. A unique feature of the PCL temperature climatology is that it extends from 35 to 95 km allowing comparison with other Rayleigh lidar climatologies (which typically extend up to about 85 km), as well as with climatologies derived from sodium lidar measurements which extend from 83 to 108 km. The derived temperature climatology is compared to the CIRA-86 climatological model and to other lidar climatologies, both Rayleigh and sodium. The PCL climatology agrees well with the climatologies of other Rayleigh lidars from similar latitudes, and like these other climatologies shows significant differences from the CIRA-86 temperatures in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Significant disagreement is also found between the PCL climatology and sodium lidar climatologies measured in the central and western United States at similar latitudes, with the PCL climatology consistently 10 to 15 K cooler in the 85 to 90 km region.

Extending and Merging the Purple Crow Lidar Temperature Climatologies Using the Inversion Method

“…In order to extend our results to include an extra 10 km on top, the inversion method is used to perform temperature climatology for the PCL High Level Rayleigh channel. In this study, the Argall and Sica methodology was followed to form the temperature climatologies where the methodology is explained in detail in Argall and Sica (2007 …”

“…Temperature retrievals from Rayleigh-scattering lidar measurements have been performed using the methods by Hauchecorne and Chanin (1980; henceforth HC) and Khanna et al (2012). Argall and Sica (2007) Khanna et al (2012) used the inversion technique to retrieve atmospheric temperature profiles and found that it had advantages over the HC method. This paper presents an extension of the PCL climatologies created by Argall and Sica (2007) and Iserhienrhien et al (2013).…”

“…Argall and Sica (2007) Khanna et al (2012) used the inversion technique to retrieve atmospheric temperature profiles and found that it had advantages over the HC method. This paper presents an extension of the PCL climatologies created by Argall and Sica (2007) and Iserhienrhien et al (2013). Both the inversion and HC methods were used to form the Rayleigh climatology, while only the latter was adopted for the Raman climatology.…”

Comparison of rayleigh-scatter and sodium resonance lidar temperatures

“…In Argall and Sica [4], RS temperatures were found to be 7 K cooler than Na temperatures in the altitude range of 80-95 km. Leblanc et al [5], found RS temperatures, from 82-88 km, to be 8-14 K colder than the Na temperatures from 80-82 km and 2-6 K colder from 82-88 km.…”

“…Two climatological studies have compared results from the RS and Na lidar techniques using composite year averages from lidar sites spread around the globe, over different observational periods [4,5]. In Argall and Sica [4], RS temperatures were found to be 7 K cooler than Na temperatures in the altitude range of 80-95 km.…”