Open AccessLidar measurements of stratosphere‐mesosphere thermal structure at a low latitude: Comparison with satellite data and models
Author(s) -
Siva Kumar V.,
Rao P. B.,
Krishnaiah M.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2002jd003029
Subject(s) - stratopause , atmospheric sciences , lidar , stratosphere , mesosphere , environmental science , latitude , satellite , occultation , geology , remote sensing , geodesy , physics , astronomy
Making use of 240 nights of Rayleigh lidar data collected over March 1998 to July 2001, we present the general characteristics of low‐latitude middle atmospheric temperature structure over Gadanki (13.5°N, 79.2°E). The height‐monthly mean temperature contour plot shows two distinct maxima in the stratopause region (∼45–55 km), occurring over February–March and September–October, a seasonal dependence quite different from that reported for midlatitudes and high latitudes. The statistical distributions of stratopause and its temperature show the most probable values to be 47–48 km and 262–264 K, respectively. A comparison with the satellite (UARS Halogen Occultation Experiment) data shows a fairly good agreement, but for the mesospheric inversion region of 70–80 km, where the lidar measurements are about 5–10 K warmer than those of the satellite. A comparison with the models, CIRA‐86 and Mass Spectrometer Incoherent Scatter Extended‐1990 (MSISE‐90), showed that the agreement with differences less than 3 K is the best for CIRA‐86 over ∼40–55 km and MSISE‐90 over 55–65 km. Below 40 km, both models overestimate by 3–9 K, with deviations somewhat larger for MSISE‐90. For 70–80 km both models deviate significantly, with differences exceeding 10 K, particularly during equinoctial periods when the mesospheric inversion occurs most frequently.