On the variability of temperature profiles in the stratosphere: Implications for validation

Abstract

Defining space‐time collocation criteria for the validation of measurements requires the information about natural variability of geophysical parameters. In this paper, we analyzed the variability of the small‐scale structure of temperature fields in the stratosphere using temperature profiles from radio‐soundings at Sodankylä (vertical resolution ∼10 m) with a small time difference between sonde launches. We found that the small‐scale structures in temperature profiles become different when the horizontal separation of measurements exceeds 20–30 km. The set of the collocated temperature profiles has allowed obtaining experimental estimates of the horizontal structure function of temperature fluctuations. The spectral analysis of the profiles has shown that vertical wavenumber spectra of temperature fluctuations are similar, even for profiles separated significantly in space and time (a few hundreds of kilometers, a few hours). Implications of these results for validation of high‐resolution profiles are discussed.