A Bayesian neural network approach for tropospheric temperature retrievals from a lidar instrument

Abstract

ABSTRACT We have constructed a Bayesian neural network able of retrieving tropospheric temperature profiles from rotational Raman-scatter measurements of nitrogen and oxygen and applied it to measurements taken by the RAman Lidar for Meteorological Observations (RALMO) in Payerne, Switzerland. We give a detailed description of using a Bayesian method to retrieve temperature profiles including estimates of the uncertainty due to the network weights and the statistical uncertainty of the measurements. We trained our model using lidar measurements under different atmospheric conditions, and we tested our model using measurements not used for training the network. The computed temperature profiles extend over the altitude range of 0.7 km to 6 km. The mean bias estimate of our temperatures relative to the MeteoSwiss standard processing algorithm does not exceed 0.05 K at altitudes below 4.5 km, and does not exceed 0.08 K in an altitude range of 4.5 km to 6 km. This agreement shows that the neural network estimated temperature profiles are in excellent agreement with the standard algorithm. The method is robust and is able to estimate the temperature profiles with high accuracy for both clear and cloudy conditions. Moreover, the trained model can provide the statistical and model uncertainties of the estimated temperature profiles. Thus, the present study is a proof of concept that the trained NNs are able to generate temperature profiles along with a full-budget uncertainty. We present case studies showcasing the Bayesian neural network estimations for day and night measurements, as well as in clear and cloudy conditions. We have concluded that the proposed Bayesian neural network is an appropriate method for the statistical retrieval of temperature profiles.