Lidar measurements of atmospheric temperature profiles (2−15 km) by utilizing Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering

In this paper, we report on a novel method for measurements of atmospheric temperature profiles during daytime from 2 km up to 15.3 km with a vertical resolution between 0.3 km to 2.2 km by lidar (light detection and ranging) using Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering. The spectra of Rayleigh-Brillouin scattered light are measured by scanning a laser (λ = 355 nm) over a 12 GHz range and using a single Fabry-Perot interferometer as frequency discriminator. Temperature is derived by analyzing the measured Rayleigh-Brillouin spectra with an analytical line shape model and assuming standard-atmospherical pressure conditions. Two exemplary temperature profiles resulting from measurements over 14 min and 27 min are shown. A comparison to radiosonde temperature measurements show reasonable agreement. The temperature difference reaches up to 5 K within the boundary layer and is smaller than 2.5 K above. The statistical error is calculated with a maximum likelihood estimator and varies between 0.15 K and 1.5 K.

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