A new method to derive middle atmospheric temperature profiles using a combination of Rayleigh lidar and O₂ airglow temperatures measurements

Abstract

The vertical temperature profiles in a typical Rayleigh lidar system depends on the backscatter photon counts and the CIRA-86 model inputs. For the first time, we show that, by making simultaneous measurements of Rayleigh lidar and upper mesospheric O2 temperatures, the lidar capability can be enhanced to obtain mesospheric temperature profile up to about 95 km altitudes. The obtained results are compared with instantaneous space-borne SABER measurements for a validation.