Retrieval of intrinsic mesospheric gravity wave parameters using lidar and airglow temperature and meteor radar wind data

Reichert, Robert; Kaifler, Bernd; Kaifler, Natalie; Rapp, Markus; Pautet, P. D.; Taylor, Michael J.; Kozlovsky, Alexander; Lester, M.; Kivi, Rigel

doi:10.5194/amt-12-5997-2019

Cited by 19 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…It is the first of a new class of high-power, autonomously operating lidars allowing for high vertical and high temporal resolution measurements of atmospheric density during night-time. Data from CORAL and its twin TELMA obtained during several multi-month campaigns in both hemispheres have been used for studies of gravity waves and other phenomena of the mesosphere like tides and noctilucent clouds [39][40][41][42][43] www.nature.com/scientificreports/ ics within the ARISE (Atmospheric Dynamics Research InfraStructure in Europe) project 44 . CORAL operates autonomously during clear sky conditions in darkness.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lidar observations of large-amplitude mountain waves in the stratosphere above Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

Kaifler

Dörnbrack

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Large-amplitude internal gravity waves were observed using Rayleigh lidar temperature soundings above Rio Grande, Argentina ($$54^\circ \; \hbox {S}$$ 54 ∘ S , $$68^\circ \; \hbox {W}$$ 68 ∘ W ), in the period 16–23 June 2018. Temperature perturbations in the upper stratosphere amounted to 80 K peak-to-peak and potential energy densities exceeded 400 J/kg. The measured amplitudes and phase alignments agree well with operational analyses and short-term forecasts of the Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), implying that these quasi-steady gravity waves resulted from the airflow across the Andes. We estimate gravity wave momentum fluxes larger than 100 mPa applying independent methods to both lidar data and IFS model data. These mountain waves deposited momentum at the inner edge of the polar night jet and led to a long-lasting deceleration of the stratospheric flow. The accumulated mountain wave drag affected the stratospheric circulation several thousand kilometers downstream. In the 2018 austral winter, mountain wave events of this magnitude contributed more than 30% of the total potential energy density, signifying their importance by perturbing the stratospheric polar vortex.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lidar observations of large-amplitude mountain waves in the stratosphere above Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

Kaifler

Dörnbrack

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…The intrinsic noise in the lidar temperature is about 5-10 K (Reichert et al, 2019), which implies no temperature gradient is observed between 88-91 km in these data. When compared to the temperature-gradient model derived from optical, satellite and rocket climatology (e.g., Holdsworth et al, 2006), it can be easily argued that our MSIS derived gradient model values ( Fig.…”

Section: First Estimate Of Slope (β)mentioning

confidence: 66%

“…For temperature estimation we considered one day of data for a six month period from October 2015 to March 2016 since simultaneous lidar measurements were available during this time. The Compact Rayleigh Autonomous Lidar (CORAL) provided vertical profiles of the atmospheric temperature at 27-98 km over Sodankylä as part of the GW-LCYCLE-II (Gravity Wave Life cycle Experiment) campaign in winter 2015/2016 (Reichert et al, 2019). The median number of daily meteor detections in this data set is 2857, with a minimum of 716 meteor detections on 04 Oct 2015 and a maximum of 6572 detections during the Geminids meteor shower on 14 Dec 2015.…”

Section: Instrumentation and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved method of estimating temperatures at meteor peak heights

Sarkar¹,

Kozlovsky²,

Ulich³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract. For two decades meteor radars have been routinely used to monitor temperatures around the 90 km altitude. A common method, based on a temperature-gradient model, is to use the height dependence of meteor decay time to obtain a height-averaged temperature in the peak meteor region. Traditionally this is done by fitting a linear regression model in the scattered plot of log10(1 / τ) and height, where τ is the half-amplitude decay time of the received signal. However, this method was found to be consistently biasing the slope estimate. The consequence of such bias is that it produces a systematic offset in the estimated temperature, and thus requiring calibration with other colocated measurements. The main reason for such a biasing effect is thought to be due to the failure of the classical regression model to take into account the measurement error in τ or the observed height. This is further complicated by the presence of various geophysical effects in the data, which are not taken into account in the physical model. The effect of such biasing is discussed on both theoretical and experimental grounds. An alternative regression method that incorporates various error terms in the statistical model is used for line fitting. This model is used to construct an analytic solution for the bias-corrected slope coefficient for this data. With this solution, meteor radar temperatures can be obtained independently without using any external calibration procedure. When compared with colocated lidar measurements, the temperature estimated using this method is found to be accurate within 7 % or better and without any systematic offset.

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“…Finally, two smaller openings of size 0.4 m by 0.4 m in the roof enable the installation of transparent domes for passive optical instruments. While one dome is usually occupied by a cloud monitoring all-sky camera, the other dome is available to guest instruments such as the Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (Pautet et al, 2014;Reichert et al, 2019). The domes can be removed and covers installed to seal the openings for shipment of the container.…”

Section: Containermentioning

confidence: 99%

A Compact Rayleigh Autonomous Lidar (CORAL) for the middle atmosphere

Kaifler¹,

Kaifler²

2020

Preprint

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Abstract. The Compact Rayleigh Autonomous Lidar (CORAL) is the first fully autonomous middle atmosphere lidar system to provide density and temperature profiles from 15 km to approximately 90 km altitude. From October 2019 to October 2020 CORAL acquired temperature profiles on 243 out of the 365 nights (66 %) above Rio Grande, southern Argentina, a cadence which is 3–8 times larger as compared to conventional human operated lidars. The result is an unprecedented data set with measurements on two out of three nights on average and high temporal (20 min) and vertical (900 m) resolution. First studies using CORAL data show for example the evolution of a strong atmospheric gravity wave event and its impact on the stratospheric circulation. We describe the instrument and its novel software which enables automatic and unattended observations over periods of more than a year. A frequency-doubled diode-pumped pulsed Nd:YAG laser is used as light source and backscattered photons are detected using three elastic channels (532 nm wavelength) and one Raman channel (608 nm wavelength). Automatic tracking of the laser beam is realized by implementation of the conical scan (conscan) method. The CORAL software detects blue sky conditions and makes the decision to start the instrument based on local meteorological measurements, detection of stars in all-sky images, and analysis of ECMWF weather forecasts. After the instrument is up and running, the strength of the lidar return signal is used as additional information to assess sky conditions. Safety features in the software allow operation of the lidar even in marginal weather which is a prerequisite to achieving the very high observation cadence.

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Retrieval of intrinsic mesospheric gravity wave parameters using lidar and airglow temperature and meteor radar wind data

Cited by 19 publications

References 69 publications

Lidar observations of large-amplitude mountain waves in the stratosphere above Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

Lidar observations of large-amplitude mountain waves in the stratosphere above Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

Improved method of estimating temperatures at meteor peak heights

A Compact Rayleigh Autonomous Lidar (CORAL) for the middle atmosphere

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