Rayleigh LIDAR and satellite (HALOE, SABER, CHAMP and COSMIC) measurements of stratosphere-mesosphere temperature over a southern sub-tropical site, Reunion (20.8° S; 55.5° E): climatology and comparison study

Abstract

For the first time, climatology of the middle atmosphere thermal structure is presented, based on 14 years of LIDAR and satellite (HALOE, SABER, CHAMP and COSMIC) temperature measurements. The data is collected over a southern sub-tropical site, Reunion Island (20.8° S; 55.5° E), for the height range between 30 and 60 km. The overall monthly mean temperature shows a maximum of 265–270 K at the stratopause height region from ~44–52 km and peaks during the months of March and November. Furthermore, the temperature profiles are compared with different satellite datasets (HALOE, CHAMP, COSMIC and SABER) and the results are found to be in reasonable agreement with each other, although a relative difference in temperature of ± 5 to 6 K is noticed. In comparison, LIDAR shows higher/lower temperatures for the lower mesosphere/upper stratosphere height region. The differences in temperature measured by the LIDAR and satellite measurements are analogous with previous results available elsewhere. Long-term temperature measurements are used to further study seasonal oscillations, especially annual, semi-annual and quasi-biennial oscillations. In comparison with SAO, the measured spectral amplitudes of AO shows dominant amplitudes in both the upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere height regions. Using LIDAR and the other satellite measurements, the quasi-biennial oscillation was found to be approximately 26 months. The spectral amplitudes are comparable to the results reported earlier by other researchers.