A technical description of the Balloon Lidar Experiment BOLIDE

Kaifler, Bernd; Rempel, Dimitry; Roßi, Philipp; Büdenbender, Christian; Kaifler, Natalie; Baturkin, Volodymyr

doi:10.5194/amt-2020-150

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The Balloon Lidar Experiment BOLIDE is a Rayleigh backscatter lidar designed to operate onboard a stratospheric longduration balloon at an altitude of ∼40 km at polar latitudes (Kaifler et al, 2020). During the 6-day flight of PMC Turbo along the Arctic circle from Sweden to Canada in July 2018 almost 50 h of high-resolution PMC soundings were recorded (Kaifler et al, 2022;Fritts et al, 2019).…”

Section: Instrument and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Signatures of gravity wave-induced instabilities in balloon lidar soundings of polar mesospheric clouds

Kaifler

Kaifler²,

Rapp³

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The Balloon Lidar Experiment (BOLIDE) which was part of the PMC Turbo balloon mission has captured near-vertical profiles of polar mesospheric clouds (PMC) during a 6-day flight along the Arctic circle in July 2018. The high-resolution soundings (20 m vertical and 10 s temporal resolution) reveal highly structured layers with large gradients in volume backscatter coefficient. We systematically screen the BOLIDE dataset for small-scale variability by assessing these gradients at high resolution. We find longer tails of the probability density distributions of these gradients compared to a normal distribution, indicating intermittent behaviour. The high occurrence rate of large gradients is assessed in relation to the 15-min-averaged layer brightness and the spectral power of short-period (5–62 min) gravity waves based on PMC layer altitude variations. We find that variability on small scales occurs during weak, moderate and strong gravity wave activity. Layers with below-average brightness are less likely to show small-scale variability in conditions of strong gravity wave activity. We present and discuss signatures of this small-scale variability and possibly related dynamical processes, and identify potential cases for future case studies and modelling efforts.

show abstract

Section: Instrument and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Signatures of gravity wave-induced instabilities in balloon lidar soundings of polar mesospheric clouds

Kaifler

Kaifler²,

Rapp³

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Pmc Turbo Instrumentation and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the event analyzed here, a vertical resolution of 60 m and a temporal resolution of 5 s was used in quantifying the volume backscatter coefficient of the PMCs. For more details on the design and performance of the lidar system, see Kaifler et al (2020). PMC Turbo flew for 5.9 days in July of 2018 from Kiruna, Sweden to Nunavut, Canada, approximately tracking the Arctic Circle.…”

Section: Pmc Turbo Instrumentation and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Gravity Wave Breaking and Vortex Ring Formation Observed by PMC Turbo

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Polar mesospheric cloud (PMC) imaging and lidar profiling performed aboard the 5.9-day PMC Turbo balloon flight from Sweden to northern Canada in July 2018 revealed a wide variety of gravity wave (GW) and instability events occurring nearly continuously at approximately 82 km. We describe one event exhibiting GW breaking and associated vortex rings driven by apparent convective instability. Using PMC Turbo imaging with spatial and temporal resolution of 20 m and 2 s, respectively, we quantify the GW horizontal wavelength, propagation direction, and apparent phase speed. We identify vortex rings with diameters of 2-5 km and horizontal spacing comparable to their size. Lidar data show GW vertical displacements of ±0.3 km. From the data, we find a GW intrinsic frequency and vertical wavelength of 0.009 ± 0.003 rad s −1 and 9 ± 4 km, respectively. We show that these values are consistent with the predictions of numerical simulations of idealized GW breaking. We estimate the momentum deposition rate per unit mass during this event to be 0.04 ± 0.02 m s −2 and show that this value is consistent with the observed GW. Comparison to simulation gives a mean energy dissipation rate for this event of 0.05-0.4 W kg −1 , which is consistent with other reported in situ measurements at the Arctic summer mesopause.

show abstract

“…PMC Turbo payload includes optical cameras which capture images of PMCs at a spatial resolution comparable to the highest achieved to date ( Baumgarten & Fritts, 2014 ) and with the most rapid cadence, as well as a Rayleigh lidar which is described in Kaifler et al (2020) . Our science goals for PMC Turbo were to identify the dominant GW, instability, and turbulence dynamics that define the character and scales of GW dissipation events and to assess the magnitudes and scales of GW momentum fluxes and understand their implications for MLT forcing and secondary GW radiation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The PMC Turbo Balloon Mission to Measure Gravity Waves and Turbulence in Polar Mesospheric Clouds: Camera, Telemetry, and Software Performance

Kjellstrand

Jones

Geach

et al. 2020

Earth and Space Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Polar Mesospheric Cloud Turbulence (PMC Turbo) instrument consists of a balloon‐borne platform which hosts seven cameras and a Rayleigh lidar. During a 6‐day flight in July 2018, the cameras captured images of Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs) with a sensitivity to spatial scales from ~20 m to 100 km at a ~2‐s cadence and a full field of view (FOV) of hundreds of kilometers. We developed software optimized for imaging of PMCs, controlling multiple independent cameras, compressing and storing images, and for choosing telemetry communication channels. We give an overview of the PMC Turbo design focusing on the flight software and telemetry functions. We describe the performance of the system during its first flight in July 2018.

show abstract

A technical description of the Balloon Lidar Experiment BOLIDE

Cited by 3 publications

References 13 publications

Signatures of gravity wave-induced instabilities in balloon lidar soundings of polar mesospheric clouds

Signatures of gravity wave-induced instabilities in balloon lidar soundings of polar mesospheric clouds

Gravity Wave Breaking and Vortex Ring Formation Observed by PMC Turbo

The PMC Turbo Balloon Mission to Measure Gravity Waves and Turbulence in Polar Mesospheric Clouds: Camera, Telemetry, and Software Performance

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About