Doppler Rayleigh/Mie/Raman lidar for wind and temperature measurements in the middle atmosphere up to 80 km

Abstract

Abstract.A direct detection Doppler lidar for measuring wind speed in the middle atmosphere up to 80 km with 2 h resolution was implemented in the ALOMAR Rayleigh/Mie/Raman lidar (69 • N, 16 • E). The random error of the line of sight wind is about 0.6 m/s and 10 m/s at 49 km and 80 km, respectively. We use a Doppler Rayleigh Iodine Spectrometer (DoRIS) at the iodine line 1109 (∼532.260 nm). DoRIS uses two branches of intensity cascaded channels to cover the dynamic range from 10 to 100 km altitude. The wind detection system was designed to extend the existing multi-wavelength observations of aerosol and temperature performed at wavelengths of 355 nm, 532 nm and 1064 nm. The lidar uses two lasers with a mean power of 14 W at 532 nm each and two 1.8 m diameter tiltable telescopes. Below about 49 km altitude the accuracy and time resolution is limited by the maximum count rate of the detectors used and not by the number of photons available. We report about the first simultaneous Rayleigh temperature and wind measurements by lidar in the stratoand mesosphere on 17 and 23 January 2009.

Simultaneous and co-located wind measurements in the middle atmosphere by lidar and rocket-borne techniques

“…We note that the presence of aerosols distorts the wind measurements of DoRIS since they cause an extra signal at the center of the Doppler broadened line (Baumgarten, 2010). This will be discussed in more detail in Sect.…”

“…The amount of photons passing the iodine cell is therefore a measure of the Doppler shift, and thereby of the wind velocity along the line of sight of the lidar. The signal also depends on the Doppler width and thereby on atmospheric temperatures (see Baumgarten, 2010, for more details). It is important to note that we use temperatures as measured by the same lidar.…”

“…The technique is called DoRIS (Doppler Rayleigh Iodine Spectrometer) and is described in detail by Baumgarten (2010). DoRIS is part of the Rayleigh/Mie/Raman (RMR) lidar of the ALOMAR (Arctic Lidar Observatory for Middle Atmosphere Research) observatory in Northern Norway (69 • N), which actually consists of a double lidar system and allows temperatures and winds to be measured in two directions simultaneously (von Zahn et al, 2000).…”

Simulation study for measurement of horizontal wind profiles in the polar stratosphere and mesosphere using ground-based observations of ozone and carbon monoxide lines in the 230–250 GHz region

“…Hooper et al, 2008;Lee et al, 2014) provide additional coverage over 0-20 km. Under clear-sky conditions the Rayleigh-Mie-Raman (RMR) lidar (Baumgarten, 2010;Hildebrand et al, 2012) measures winds throughout the middle atmosphere above Andenes, northern Norway but requires complex laser transmission and detection equipment and is not portable. Ground-based Doppler lidars measure tropospheric and lower stratospheric winds (Gentry et al, 2000), with possible extension up to 50 km (Souprayen et al, 1999) and sodium lidars cover the altitude range 85-100 km (Williams et al, 2004).…”

Airborne wind lidar observations over the North Atlantic in 2016 for the pre-launch validation of the satellite mission Aeolus

“…In particular, direct-detection wind lidars have been demonstrated to provide accurate wind information from 25 ground up to altitudes of 60 km (Dou et al, 2014) or even beyond (Baumgarten, 2010;Hildebrand et al, 2012). The most ambitious endeavour in this context is the upcoming satellite mission Aeolus of the European Space Agency (ESA) which strives for the continuous, global observation of atmospheric wind profiles employing the first ever satellite-borne Doppler wind lidar instrument ALADIN (Atmospheric LAser Doppler INstrument) (ESA, 2008;Stoffelen et al, 2005).…”