Comparison of wind measurements in the troposphere and mesosphere by VHF/MF radars and in-situ techniques

Abstract

Abstract. Radar wind observations at frequencies between 1.98 and 53.5 MHz obtained at polar latitudes were compared to in-situ wind measurements by radiosondes at tropospheric altitudes and to winds from falling spheres at mesospheric altitudes. Comparisons are shown for several campaigns of radiosonde and falling sphere observations. The radar wind directions agree well to the radiosonde and falling sphere observations and are highly correlated. The winds estimated from radar measurements are less than the radiosonde data by about 15% for spaced antenna observations and by about 10% for the Doppler beam swinging experiment. At mesospheric altitudes the spaced antenna winds obtained from the wide-beam Andenes MF radar are underestimated in the order of 35% and winds from the narrow-beam Saura MF radar are underestimated by about 20% compared to falling sphere winds at altitudes between 70 and 80 km. Furthermore, the relation between wind measurements using narrow-beam and wide-beam antenna arrangements for the MF radars is discussed and VHF radar observations are compared to the wide-beam MF radar.

Seasonal variation of mesospheric waves at northern middle and high latitudes

“…1, clearly showing an excellent agreement between both data sets at 82-84 km, but also indicating differences at altitudes above 85 km where the MF radar winds tend to be smaller than those recorded by the meteor radars. Similar results are known from other investigations (for details see also Hocking and Thayaparan, 1997;Manson et al, 2004;Jacobi et al, 2009;Engler et al, 2008).…”

A review of Mesosphere–Stratosphere–Troposphere (MST) radar developments and studies, circa 1997–2008

“…Engler et al (2008) have presented a recent, relatively comprehensive, comparison of Doppler and Spaced Antenna methods compared to in situ methods like falling spheres and radiosondes. In general they find that the various methods agree well in direction, but with some scatter, while the radar method seems to underestimate the in situ methods by typically 10-30%, with the Doppler methods having less serious discrepancies.…”

Dynamics of the Antarctic and Arctic mesosphere and lower thermosphere – Part 1: Mean winds

“…In general at heights above about 85-90 km MF radars record significantly weaker winds than meteor radars. Engler et al (2008) estimated the winds measured by MF radar in the upper mesosphere to be too small by anywhere between 20-40%. Similar results have been found by, e.g., Stubbs (1973), Cervera and Reid (1995), Hocking and Thyaparan (1997), Manson et al (2004), Jacobi et al (2009).…”