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Theatmospheric
density
profiles
areexpected
topresent Foranatmosphere
freeofaerosols,
thelightbackscattered
wave-like
structures
dueto gravitywaveperturbations.
Their by theatmospherefroma laserbeanis dueto Rayleighscat-
characteristics
havebeencalculated
by meansof perturbation teringby atmospheric
molecules,
unlessthe emittedwave-
theory[Hines,1960]andhavebeenobserved
by rocket length
coincides
witha resonance
lineofatmospheric
constit-
[Favreet al., 1974;Phillbricket al., 1974].Calculationandex- uents.To optimizethe lidar systemto measureneutraldensity
perimentaldata are in satisfactory agreement; but, up to now, we should take into accountthe •-4 variation of Rayleigh
only rocketdata have beenavailableand only sporadically. crosssection,the energyper pulseof the laser,its repetition
Therefore it has been difficult to follow the wave propagation rate, and the quantumefficiencyof the receiverat the laser
and to describeall its characteristics. wavelength. Rapidlyevolvinglasertechnologyprecludes a de-
The resultspresentedhere by usingLidar soundingfrom finitive answerfor such an optimization, but at the present
thegroundcanbe obtainedon a continuous basis,offeringthe timetheoptimalspectralrangeappearsto lie around500nm.
newpossibility of studyingthe wavepropagation and its con- In a first step,the atmosphericdensityprofileswere ob-
sequences on thetemperature anddensityof themiddleatmo- tained from the lidar stationset up to studythe mesospheric
sphere.In the Lidar method,the lightfrom a laserpulsesent alkali atoms at the Observatoryof Haute Provence. Two
verticallythroughthe atmosphere is backscatteredby mole- wavelengths wereusedcorresponding to the sodiumor lith-
culresin the atmosphere or by any otherparticleswhichmay ium resonanceat 589 and 670 nm, respectively.The descrip-
be presentin the laserbeampath. This techniquehas been tion of thislidar facilityhasbeengivenin earlierpublications
usedfor more than a decadewith the purposeof measuring [MegieandBlamont,1977;Jegouet al., 1980]andis summa-
atmosphericparametersabove 70 kin. Kent and Keenliside rized in Table 1. The altituderangeis limited downwardby a
[1975]havereportedwhattheyinterpretasevidenceof tidal chopperdesigned for protectionof the photomultiplier and
modesin the atmospheri c densitybetween70 and 100kin. upwardby the signal-to-noise ratio. Most of the data have
However,most of the lidar resultson wave propagationhave beenobtainedduringnighttimeand soare all the datausedin
been obtained between 80 and 100 km from the resonance this analysis.
The extensionto daytimeis only recentand at
backscatter
fromsodium
atoms
[Blamont
etal., 1972;Kirchoff thepresent
timelimitedto a rangeof 50kin.Recently,
since
and Clemesha,1973;Richterand Sechrist,1979;Juramy et al., November 1979,the data have alsobeen obtainedwith a new
1981]. The resultspresentedhere are obtained in the 30-80 lidar stationdesignedfor troposphericand stratosphericmea-
km regionand are thereforethe first onesin this domain. surements and optimizedfor the detectionof Rayleighscatter-
Over the last 2 years,densityand temperaturebetween30 ing.Thisstation,setup alongside
thefirstone,usesfor density
and 80 km have been measured from our Lidar stations at the soundingsthe firstharmonicof a Nd-Yag laseremitting300
Observatoryof Haute Provencein France(44øN, 6øE). As re- mJ at 530 nm with a 10hz repetitionrate;the efficiencyis then
portedearlier,a comparison betweenlidar and rocketdata increased by a factorof 10.In thisstation,described in Table
showedthe two methodsto be compatible[Hauchecorneand 2, the measurements are not limited downwardbelow30 kin,
Chanin[1980]. Since then, the quality of the data has in- but,becauseof thepresence of stratospheric
aerosols, we have
creased,yieldingeither an improvementin accuracyor a re- only considered,up to now, the data above30 kin.
ductionof the spatialor temporalresolution.
We describethis LIDAR MEASUREMENTS OF DENSITY AND TEMPERATURE
techniqueand presentpreliminaryresultson wave propaga- IN THE MIDDLE ATMOSPHERE: EXPERIMENTAL LIMITS
tion measurements.
AND ACCURACY
In a previousarticle,[Hauchecorne
and Chanin,1980]the
Copyright¸ 1981by the AmericanGeophysical
Union. method to deduceatmosphericdensityfrom laser backscat-
Papernumber IC0682. 9715
0148-0227/81/001 C-0682501.00
9716 CHANIN AND HAUCHECORNE: LIDAR OBSERVATION OF GRAVITY AND TIDAL WAVES IN THE MIDDLE ATMOSPHERE
Telescopediameter
Receiver
0.818 m
0.515 m 2
40Az--3.6
30
Km
,
• I
02
, • ,
0.8
• .
0.9
• ,
1.0
• ,
1.1 1.2
,
1.3
Telescopearea
Field of view 5 x 10-4 rad p exp/p model.
(for nighttime)
Bandwidth 0.4 nm TEMPERATURE
Receivergate 8/•s (1, 2 km)
* Method: photon countingcombinedwith analogicalrecording.
DENSITY
nance wavelength(670 nm), while the data reported in Figure
9O
2 were obtained with the new stationat 530 rim. The accuracy
in the lower part of the profiles is much improved with the
e 80
_
30'''''''''
200 220 2t,0
,••,/,/C,
260
ir•m,
od,,l.,
280
and Rayleigh scatteringprocessesvary very differently as a
function of wavelength. Several seriesof measurementswere
TOK performedat two differentwavelengths(670 and 530 nm) and
August 13 1980 gave simultaneousand very similar density measurements,
Fig. 2. As in Figure I for the •ght of August 13-14, 1980,•d a 7- even during the post Mount St. Helens eruption period, when
hour integration period. the level of stratosphericaerosolswas much higher than usual.
Figure 4 presentsthe ratio of the two density measurements
deducedat the two wavelengthsand indicatesthat the agree-
cases,quite large when comparedto the standarddeviation ment is within the limits of their respectiveaccuracy. But, a
and are still significantabove the stratopausein Figure lb. spotcheckat two wavelengthsshouldbe performed at regular
The densityand temperatureprofilespresentedin Figure 1 intervalsto rule out a possiblecontribution of meteorericdust
were obtained with the first lidar station at the lithium reso- or clusters at the 80 km level.
- _
_ ////•,.
./•"'"'•
6O
_ //
/i///
/./'
5O
- ///•.//
•0 -
3O
o.1
......
, ........
1
, lO o.1
i i ! , it,ll
1
i ! i • i,ill
lO
i i i i iilL
lOO
Density accuracy % Temperoture occurocy øK
Fig. 3. Densityandtemperature accuracy
asa functionof heightfor 1•-- 670nm, AT = 10hour(dash-dotted line);for
= 530nm, AT -- 7 hour(solidline) asexpectedat )• -- 530nm andAT- 10hoursafterreductionof fieldof viewdown to
x 10-4 tad. (dottedline).
9718 CHANINAND HAUCHECORNE:
LIDAR OBSERVATION
OF GRAVITYAND TIDAL WAVESIN THE MIDDLE ATMOSPHERE
pendentiy
of theseason
andforanyintegration
timeranging
70 from a few minutes up to a few hours. Figure 5 presentstwo
examplesof such profiles:the winter profile (Figure 5a) ob-
• 6o tained at 670 nm with 2 hours integration time, the summer
one (Figure 5b) at 530 nm with half an hour integrationtime.
All of the profilesthat have been recordedin the last 2 years
of measurements exhibit such a wave-like structure. The den-
5o
sity oscillates around an average profile with amplitude
reaching5% of the ambient densityat 50 km and up to 15%at
70 km. This increasein the amplitude of the perturbationwith
•,0
height is a characteristicfeature of all our data. For most of
the altitude rangeup to 70 km, the amplitudesof the density
variationare largerthan the standarddeviationand thus can
30
0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 be consideredas significant.
p 670 nm/p 530 nm CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WAVE PROPAGATION
Fig.4. Comparison
between
density
profiles
obtained
at 670and
530 nm with an integrationtime of 2 hoursand a verticalsmoothing The improvementin temporalresolutionof the densitypro-
over 9.6 kin. file has been an important step forward in the study of the
wave propagation.The profilesobtainedrecently(Figures6a,
6b, 6c) exhibit very well-definedstructuresindicatingclearly a
The other limits of this method are its restriction to clear downwardpropagationof the phasebetween40 and 75 kin.
weatherconditionsand to nighttime.There is little to be done From this figure we deducea vertical wavelengthof 7.5 kin.
about the first limit becausethe improvementof working at The amplitudesof the oscillationsaround the mean density,
infraredwavelengths (10.6/an) is canceledby a tremendous increasingwith height as mentionedbefore, can be studiedas
reductionof range.On the otherhand, the restrictionof the a functionof height.From suchset of data it has been shown
measurements to nighttimecan be overcome.Our grouphas (Figure6a) that, between40 and 70 kin, the amplitudevaries
recentlyobserved the sodiumdaytimeemission with a signal- in 10-1/2, p beingthe ambientdensity,as expectedfrom atmo-
to-noiseratio of 50, and the Rayleigh scatteringis then mea- spheric wave theory.(This conditionis necessary for kinetic
suredup to 50 km. Thesedaytimemeasurements arestillpre- energy conservation.)From a series
of such hourly profileswe
have been able to describe some of the characteristics of the
liminary,but theyencourage
usin seeking to obtaindaytime
waves observed.
densityand temperatureprofilesat leastup to 50 km in the
near future. This will be valuablefor studyingwave propaga- To presenta global picturefor the full periodsof observa-
tion and diurnal variation of stratospherictemperature. tion and to highlight somefeature of the wave propagation
the density variations are presented as isopleths of per-
EVIDENCE OF WAVE PROPAGATION turbations about the mean value calculated for the whole
The densityprofilespresented
in FiguresI and2 wereob- night. Amplitude of the variation has been correctedfor the
tained with an integrationtime of 10 and 7 hours, respec- p-l/2 variationin all the followingcontourmaps.Densityin-
tively.The largedifferencewith the modelhasa tendencyto creases,correspondingto p > rS,are representedby positive
hidethe oscillatingstructureof the profile.In what follows,to values and are indicated on the maps by the shaded areas,
studythetemporalbehaviorof the densityprofilethe experi- while data correspondingto negativeperturbations(p _<IS)are
mental data are normalized to the whole night averagevalue indicated by the clear zones. Isopleths of the density per-
fl. Wave-likestructures
appear,then,on all the profilesinde- turbationsAp are plottedby stepsof 2 x 10-2 (g m-a)!/2 for
8O
7o
• •0
50
•0
80
.• 70
:• 60
5O
4O
3O ß I
0.7
.
0.8
I ,
0.9
I ,
1.0
ß
,
1.1
I ,
1.2
I
13
I
0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.i 1.2 1.3 1./. 0.8 0.9
I 01'12-
1.0
02'
12
. I
1.1
, i
1.2
.
1.3
i . i
1./.
p exp/•
the quantityAp X •O
-1/2. The data presentedhere correspond indicatesa 3-4 hour period. From 50 km downward, the same
to three different periods of the year, November (Figure 7), structuresare sometimespresent,but, in most cases,they are
June (Figure 8), and August(Figure 9), and do not indicate hidden by a much slowerphasedescent(--•0.5km/hour), half
any obviousseasonalvariation. It should be mentioned that a period during the night, indicating a 24-hour period (Fig-
data obtainedduring stratosphericwarmingshave been delib- ures7, 8, 9). The number of data available to build suchmaps
erately excluded becauseof the influence of planetary wave is still too limited to perform a statistical study of the wave
over powering the influence of gravity waves, and those data propagation,but the examplespresentedhere give a first in-
are presented in another article [Hauchecorneand Chanin, dication of the variation of density, and therefore temper-
1981]. A general feature in all the data is the evidence of a ature, in the stratosphereand mesosphereon an hourly basis.
downward phase propagation with a phase velocity varying More accurate information about the vertical wavelength
with height. Between 50 and 70 km a phasevelocity of about 4 of the densitywaveshave been derived from the lidar data by
km/hour associatedwith vertical wavelengthsof about 8 km using the Fourier analysistechniquein the range 30-70 km.
The analysiswas performed by smoothingthe extreme limits
of the height range by using a Blackman window to eliminate
I I I I I I I I '
.
6o
._.70 i i i i i
E
ß 55
5o
• 60
/.5
4o 5O
:.
.:.
35
i i I I I I I
22 23 O0 01 02 03 04 05 4O
Time GHT
21 22
i i
23
i
00
i
01 02
Fig. 7. Map contour of density perturbations from the mean
Time GNT Time 6MT
nighttimevalue for the night of November 15-16. The amplitude of
the perturbation
is correctedby p-l/2 and contourlines(solid)are June 261980l June 271980 June281980 I Jun,291980
plottedby stepof 2x10-2 (g m-3)•/2. The zeroperturbationline is
representedby a solid heavy line that separatesthe clear area (de- Fig. 8. As in Figure 7 exceptfor the nightsof (a) June 26-27, 1980,
creaseof density)from the shadedarea (positiveperturbations). and (b) June 28-29, 1980.
9720 CHANIN AND HAUCHECORNE: LIDAR OBSERVATION OF GRAVITY AND TIDAL WAVES IN THE MIDDLE ATMOSPHERE
DISCUSSION
Both phase and amplitude disagreewith a tidal model for 0 0.1 o.2 o.3
the 4-4 hour period waves observedabove 45 kin, but, on the km -1
other hand, as it has been shown earlier, the amplitude of
thosewavesobey the p-•/2 law (as expectedfrom internal Fig. 10. Spectralenergy as a function of the inverseof the vertical
gravity waves). The range of vertical wavelengthsis cornpat- wavelengthfor (a) August 12, 1980, and (b) June 26, 1980.
CHANIN AND HAUCHECORNE.'LIDAR OBSERVATIONOF GRAVITY AND TIDAL WAVES IN THE MIDDLE ATMOSPHERE 9721