Rayleigh lidar and Rayleigh Doppler lidar for measurement of the Arctic atmosphere

Abstract

Height profiles of temperatures and winds of the middle atmosphere between 30km to 60km are observable only by Rayleigh lidar and Rayleigh Doppler lidar except for rocket sounding which is expensive and not suitable for continuous measurements. We developed a Rayleigh lidar system and it is now working well for temperature observations of the Arctic middle atmosphere at Poker Flat Research Range near Fairbanks, Alaska (65.1N, 147.5W). A comparison of lidar data and balloon sonde data showed good agreement in overlapped altitudes. A Rayleigh Doppler lidar for wind measurements of the middle atmosphere is under the phase of development. The expected accuracy in measurements of horizontal winds up to an altitude of 60km is smaller than 6m/s in 2hours observation. The system will be also operated at Poker Flat. The combination of these lidars and radars installed at Poker Flat give us chances of simultaneous observations of the structure and dynamics of the atmosphere in broad range of altitudes. Here, we give descriptions of the Rayleigh lidar and the Rayleigh Doppler lidar for the observations of the Arctic middle atmosphere at Poker Flat.© (2001) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.