Search

Temperature profiles at altitudes of 5–80 km are obtained with a self-calibrated Rayleigh–rotational Raman lidar over Wuhan, China (30.5°N, 114.5°E). By using the synchronous Rayleigh lidar temperature, rotational Raman temperature in the lower atmosphere could be calibrated and retrieved, which is free of other instruments (like local radiosondes). The results are comparable to the radiosonde calibration method. Based on the self-calibration approach, one-night (August 4–5, 2014) lidar temperature profiles are presented with radiosondes, NRLMSISE-00 model and TIMED/SABER data. Some interesting temperature characteristics have been present for studies of waves propagating from near ground level into the mesosphere. Temperature perturbations are found to increase exponentially with a scale height of ~10 km. The wavy structure shows minimal perturbations (‘nodes’) at some altitudes of 39, 52, 64 and 73 km. Dominant wavelengths and temperature variations are also analyzed at different time and altitudes. By comparison of the temperature and associate perturbations from the tropopause up to the stratopause, different amplitudes, phase fronts and vertical wavelengths are discovered as well. These discoveries indicate that some waves may originate in the lower atmosphere and propagate upward with decreasing static stability.

A combined lidar system on the basis of conventional Rayleigh lidar has been extended by two rotational Raman (RR) channels for nocturnal atmospheric temperature measurements from 5 to 80 km over Wuhan, China (30.5°N, 114.5°E). An overlapping altitude range of about 10 km is obtained with the RR-technique temperatures reaching upward to 40 km and the Rayleigh-integration-technique temperatures above 30 km. Temperature values obtained by two different mechanisms match nicely in the overlapping area. By using a data-merge method, complete temperature profiles covering widely from 5 to 80 km are obtained for the observation of the thermal structure and perturbations from the troposphere up to the mesosphere. Based on the overlapping-region (30–40 km) data obtained from this combined RR–Rayleigh lidar system and Rayleigh-integration-technique temperatures initialized with model data at an upper height (90 km), we develop a self-calibration method for the determination of the system-dependent constants for RR temperature retrieval. Compared with the conventional radiosonde calibration method, the self-calibration obtained in the overlap region of both lidar temperature measurement techniques can be extrapolated to the lower temperatures in the tropopause region by using the simpler two-constant calibration function. With this new calibration method, the combined lidar system can perform independent and accurate atmospheric temperature measurements when a coincident (in time and space) radiosonde is not available, as it is often the case. This combined RR–Rayleigh lidar thus has the potential for long-term studies of atmospheric thermal structure and associate perturbations.

Temperature is an important parameter in describing the atmospheric state. Large-scale temperature profile measurements with high temporal and vertical resolutions can provide a comprehensive understanding of the atmospheric dynamics and thermodynamics. Different from Rayleigh mechanism, a pure rotational Raman (PRR) lidar is preferred for the lower atmospheric temperature measurements even with the aerosol and optically cloud layers.

In this paper, a lidar system in Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics (WIPM, 30.5 o N,114.5 o E) for atmospheric density, temperature and wind observation was reported. The design and techniques of this lidar were described in detail. The atmospheric temperature of the troposphere, stratosphere and lower mesosphere were measured by the Raman, Rayleigh and sodium channel of this lidar system, respectively.

In the above paper [1] , there are two errors on page 7058. In addition, the support information has been updated to include an additional funding source. The complete funding statement should be