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Ann. Geophys., 26, 1681-1698, 2008
www.ann-geophys.net/26/1681/2008/
© European Geosciences Union 2008
Polar middle atmosphere temperature climatology from Rayleigh lidar measurements at ALOMAR (69° N)
A. Schöch1,*, G. Baumgarten1, and J. Fiedler1
1Leibniz-Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Kühlungsborn, Germany
*now at: Carl Zeiss SMT AG, Oberkochen, Germany
Abstract. Rayleigh lidar temperature profiles have been derived in
the polar middle atmosphere from 834 measurements with the ALOMAR
Rayleigh/Mie/Raman lidar (69.3° N, 16.0° E) in
the years 1997–2005. Since our instrument is able to operate under full
daylight conditions, the unique data set presented here extends over the
entire year and covers the altitude region 30 km–85 km
in winter and 30 km–65 km in summer. Comparisons of our
lidar data set to reference atmospheres and ECMWF analyses show agreement
within a few Kelvin in summer but in winter higher temperatures below
55 km and lower temperatures above by as much as 25 K, due
likely to superior resolution of stratospheric warming and associated
mesospheric cooling events.
We also present a temperature climatology for the entire lower and middle
atmosphere at 69° N obtained from a combination of lidar
measurements, falling sphere measurements and ECMWF analyses. Day to day
temperature variability in the lidar data is found to be largest in winter
and smallest in summer.
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