Lidar temperature series in the middle atmosphere as a reference data set – Part 2: Assessment of temperature observations from MLS/Aura and SABER/TIMED satellites

Abstract

Abstract. We have compared 2433 nights of Rayleigh lidar temperatures measured at L'Observatoire de Haute Provence (OHP) with co-located temperature measurements from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) and the Sounding of the Atmosphere by Broadband Emission Radiometry instrument (SABER). The comparisons were conducted using data from January 2002 to March 2018 in the geographic region around the observatory (43.93∘ N, 5.71∘ E). We have found systematic differences between the temperatures measured from the ground-based lidar and those measured from the satellites, which suggest non-linear distortions in the satellite altitude retrievals. We see a winter stratopause cold bias in the satellite measurements with respect to the lidar (−6 K for SABER and −17 K for MLS), a summer mesospheric warm bias (6 K near 60 km), and a vertically structured bias for MLS (−4 to 4 K). We have corrected the stratopause height of the satellite measurements using the lidar temperatures and have seen an improvement in the comparison. The winter relative cold bias between the lidar and SABER has been reduced to 1 K in both the stratosphere and mesosphere and the summer mesospheric warm bias is reduced to 2 K. Stratopause altitude corrections have reduced the relative cold bias between the lidar and MLS by 4 K in the early autumn and late spring but were unable to address the apparent vertical oscillations in the MLS temperature profiles.

A new MesosphEO data set of temperature profiles from 35 to 85 km using Rayleigh scattering at limb from GOMOS/ENVISAT daytime observations

“…The dispersion of the differences remains relatively constant with altitude and has an approximate value of ±5 K over the entire altitude range. The positive relative bias in the upper part of the profile may be at least partially due to a warm bias in OHP temperature above 75 km as reported by Wing et al (2018b) using a comparison with SABER-TIMED. Below 75 km, the alternation between positive and negative relative biases with altitude may indicate a contribution of the atmospheric thermal tides, as the temperature measurements are not obtained simultaneously.…”

“…Further work would be needed to confirm this hypothesis. The comparison of OHP lidar temperature profiles with MLS-Aura and SABER-TIMED indicated systematic differences and suggested non-linear distortions in the satellite altitude retrievals (Wing et al, 2018b). In order to better understand these differences, we plan to compare our new GOMOS temperature data set with MLS and SABER in a future work.…”

“…A validation exercise has been made using the Rayleigh lidar located at Observatoire de Haute Provence (OHP; 43.9 • N, 5.7 • E). This lidar has been part of the Network for Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC; http://www.ndaccdemo.org; last access: 30 January 2019) since its creation in 1991 and has participated in several satellite validation experiments for instruments on board the UARS satellite (Fishbein et al, 1996;Gille et al, 1996;Hervig et al, 1996;Singh et al, 1996;Wu et al, 2003; The standard deviation of the difference is shaded. Keckhut et al, 2004), and more recently for MLS-Aura and SABER-TIMED (Wing et al, 2018b).…”

Using a global network of temperature lidars to identify temperature biases in the upper stratosphere in ECMWF reanalyses

“…A more thorough comparison made by Schwartz et al (2008) compared EOS MLS temperature retrievals to those from radiosondes, several satellites, and from GPSRO. It was found that from 0.0001 hPa to 0.3 hPa that temperature bias could range from -9 to 0K with temperature precision ranging from ±1 to ±2.5 K. A further study by Wing et al (2018a) found that the bias in wintertime MLS was ±10 K and ±4 K in the summertime. At 1 hPa warm biases from 0 to 5K were found.…”

Intercomparison and Evaluation of Ground- and Satellite-Based Stratospheric Ozone and Temperature profiles above Observatoire Haute Provence during the Lidar Validation NDACC Experiment (LAVANDE)

“…While all the lidars were measuring at the same location and the same time during LAVANDE, and the ECC sondes were quite close in time and space, satellite profiles almost never match the exact time and location of a ground-based measurement. For LAVANDE, we considered all satellite profiles with a tangent point within ±5 • latitude and ±15 • longitude of the OHP station (43.94 • N, 5.71 • E), and within ±12 hours of 00 UTC (1 hour after local midnight for the lidar measurements nights) (see also Wing et al, 2018b). This fairly large coincidence box is depicted in Fig.…”