Articles | Volume 15, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3465-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3465-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
10 Jun 2022
Research article |
| 10 Jun 2022
| 10 Jun 2022
On the derivation of zonal and meridional wind components from Aeolus horizontal line-of-sight wind
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), Institut
für Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Neil P. Hindley
Centre for Space, Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, University of Bath, Bath, UK
Oliver Reitebuch
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), Institut
für Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Corwin J. Wright
Centre for Space, Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, University of Bath, Bath, UK
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Manfred Ern, Mohamadou A. Diallo, Dina Khordakova, Isabell Krisch, Peter Preusse, Oliver Reitebuch, Jörn Ungermann, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9549–9583, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9549-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9549-2023, 2023
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Quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) of the stratospheric tropical winds is an important mode of climate variability but is not well reproduced in free-running climate models. We use the novel global wind observations by the Aeolus satellite and radiosondes to show that the QBO is captured well in three modern reanalyses (ERA-5, JRA-55, and MERRA-2). Good agreement is also found also between Aeolus and reanalyses for large-scale tropical wave modes in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere.
Corwin J. Wright, Richard J. Hall, Timothy P. Banyard, Neil P. Hindley, Isabell Krisch, Daniel M. Mitchell, and William J. M. Seviour
Weather Clim. Dynam., 2, 1283–1301, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2-1283-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2-1283-2021, 2021
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Major sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) are some of the most dramatic events in the atmosphere and are believed to help cause extreme winter weather events such as the 2018 Beast from the East in Europe and North America. Here, we use unique data from the European Space Agency's new Aeolus satellite to make the first-ever measurements at a global scale of wind changes due to an SSW in the lower part of the atmosphere to help us understand how SSWs affect the atmosphere and surface weather.
Markus Geldenhuys, Peter Preusse, Isabell Krisch, Christoph Zülicke, Jörn Ungermann, Manfred Ern, Felix Friedl-Vallon, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 10393–10412, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10393-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10393-2021, 2021
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A large-scale gravity wave (GW) was observed spanning the whole of Greenland. The GWs proposed in this paper come from a new jet–topography mechanism. The topography compresses the flow and triggers a change in u- and
v-wind components. The jet becomes out of geostrophic balance and sheds energy in the form of GWs to restore the balance. This topography–jet interaction was not previously considered by the community, rendering the impact of the gravity waves largely unaccounted for.
Isabell Krisch, Manfred Ern, Lars Hoffmann, Peter Preusse, Cornelia Strube, Jörn Ungermann, Wolfgang Woiwode, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 11469–11490, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11469-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11469-2020, 2020
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In 2016, a scientific research flight above Scandinavia acquired various atmospheric data (temperature, gas composition, etc.). Through advanced 3-D reconstruction methods, a superposition of multiple gravity waves was identified. An in-depth analysis enabled the characterisation of these waves as well as the identification of their sources. This work will enable a better understanding of atmosphere dynamics and could lead to improved climate projections.
Lukas Krasauskas, Jörn Ungermann, Stefan Ensmann, Isabell Krisch, Erik Kretschmer, Peter Preusse, and Martin Riese
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Many limb sounder measurements from the same atmospheric region taken at different angles can be combined into a 3-D tomographic image of the atmosphere. Mathematically, this is a complex, computationally expensive, underdetermined problem that needs additional constraints (regularisation). We introduce an improved regularisation method based on physical properties of the atmosphere with a new irregular grid implementation. Simulated data tests show improved results and lower computational cost.
Wolfgang Woiwode, Andreas Dörnbrack, Martina Bramberger, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Florian Haenel, Michael Höpfner, Sören Johansson, Erik Kretschmer, Isabell Krisch, Thomas Latzko, Hermann Oelhaf, Johannes Orphal, Peter Preusse, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, and Jörn Ungermann
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GLORIA observations during two crossings of the polar front jet stream resolve the fine mesoscale structure of a tropopause fold in high detail. Tracer–tracer correlations of H2O and O3 are presented as a function of potential temperature and reveal an active mixing region. Our study confirms conceptual models of tropopause folds, validates the high quality of ECMWF IFS forecasts, and suggests that mountain waves are capable of modulating exchange processes in the vicinity of tropopause folds.
Isabell Krisch, Jörn Ungermann, Peter Preusse, Erik Kretschmer, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4327–4344, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4327-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4327-2018, 2018
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Three-dimensional temperature measurements of the atmosphere are required to address current research questions concerning the propagation of gravity waves. Limited angle tomography (LAT) with measurements from an airborne infrared limb imager can provide such 3-D temperature measurements. Wave parameters derived from such LAT measurements achieve an accuracy similar to that derived from full angle tomography, if the orientation of the flight path is optimized with respect to the gravity wave.
Anne Kleinert, Isabell Krisch, Jörn Ungermann, Albert Adibekyan, Berndt Gutschwager, and Christian Monte
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3871–3882, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3871-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3871-2018, 2018
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This study investigates the required accuracy of radiometric calibration sources for remote sensing instruments to properly resolve decadal trends of climate relevant trace species like ozone, water vapor and temperature. The required temperature knowledge of the calibration source is in the order of 100 mK. This is demonstrated by a Monte Carlo simulation. The results are confirmed using real measurements acquired by the GLORIA instrument.
Isabell Krisch, Peter Preusse, Jörn Ungermann, Andreas Dörnbrack, Stephen D. Eckermann, Manfred Ern, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Martin Kaufmann, Hermann Oelhaf, Markus Rapp, Cornelia Strube, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 14937–14953, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14937-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14937-2017, 2017
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Using the infrared limb imager GLORIA, the 3-D structure of mesoscale gravity waves in the lower stratosphere was measured for the first time, allowing for a complete 3-D characterization of the waves. This enables the precise determination of the sources of the waves in the mountain regions of Iceland with backward ray tracing. Forward ray tracing shows oblique propagation, an effect generally neglected in global atmospheric models.
Manfred Ern, Quang Thai Trinh, Martin Kaufmann, Isabell Krisch, Peter Preusse, Jörn Ungermann, Yajun Zhu, John C. Gille, Martin G. Mlynczak, James M. Russell III, Michael J. Schwartz, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 9983–10019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-9983-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-9983-2016, 2016
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Sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) influence the atmospheric circulation over a large range of altitudes and latitudes. We investigate the global distribution of small-scale gravity waves (GWs) during SSWs as derived from 13 years of satellite observations.
We find that GWs may play an important role for triggering SSWs by preconditioning the polar vortex, as well as during long-lasting vortex recovery phases after SSWs. The GW distribution during SSWs displays strong day-to-day variability.
Corwin J. Wright, Phoebe E. Noble, Timothy P. Banyard, Sarah J. Freeman, and Paul D. Williams
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1045, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1045, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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We use measured transatlantic flight times since 1994 from the IAGOS programme to assess the impact of the NAO, ENSO, the QBO and the solar cycle on these flight times. We see strong effects with changes to one-way flight times by over an hour and round-trip flight times by several minutes per flight. These effects drive variability in total CO2 emissions of 10s of kT per month and in financial cost of millions of USD per month over the full transatlantic fleet.
Peter G. Berthelemy, Corwin J. Wright, Neil P. Hindley, Phoebe E. Noble, and Lars Hoffmann
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Chaim I. Garfinkel, Zachary D. Lawrence, Amy H. Butler, Etienne Dunn-Sigouin, Irene Erner, Alexey Y. Karpechko, Gerbrand Koren, Marta Abalos, Blanca Ayarzagüena, David Barriopedro, Natalia Calvo, Alvaro de la Cámara, Andrew Charlton-Perez, Judah Cohen, Daniela I. V. Domeisen, Javier García-Serrano, Neil P. Hindley, Martin Jucker, Hera Kim, Robert W. Lee, Simon H. Lee, Marisol Osman, Froila M. Palmeiro, Inna Polichtchouk, Jian Rao, Jadwiga H. Richter, Chen Schwartz, Seok-Woo Son, Masakazu Taguchi, Nicholas L. Tyrrell, Corwin J. Wright, and Rachel W.-Y. Wu
Weather Clim. Dynam., 6, 171–195, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-171-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-171-2025, 2025
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Variability in the extratropical stratosphere and troposphere is coupled, and because of the longer timescales characteristic of the stratosphere, this allows for a window of opportunity for surface prediction. This paper assesses whether models used for operational prediction capture these coupling processes accurately. We find that most processes are too weak; however downward coupling from the lower stratosphere to the near surface is too strong.
Marwa Almowafy, Corwin Wright, and Neil Hindley
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3524, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3524, 2025
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Gravity waves (GW) influence atmospheric dynamics. One key effect is on the zonal winds in the tropics stratosphere, which drive the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO). Satellite observations are used to study gravity waves, but each satellite is constrained by its observational limits. This study investigates how GW–QBO interactions are observed by two satellites, SABER and GNSS-RO, and examines the potential for GNSS-RO to extend the GW climatology that is carried out by SABER for 23 years.
Michael Vaughan, Kevin Ridley, Benjamin Witschas, Oliver Lux, Ines Nikolaus, and Oliver Reitebuch
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-202, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-202, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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ESAs Aeolus mission, launched in 2018, has exceeded expectations, providing valuable global wind lidar data for nearly five years. Its data has improved weather forecasting, with Mie-cloudy winds proving especially precise. Challenges emerged, such as unexpected misalignments in signal angles and reduced signal levels due to beam clipping and laser issues. Lessons from Aeolus highlight the need for better optical alignment and active control systems for future lidar missions.
Gunter Stober, Sharon L. Vadas, Erich Becker, Alan Liu, Alexander Kozlovsky, Diego Janches, Zishun Qiao, Witali Krochin, Guochun Shi, Wen Yi, Jie Zeng, Peter Brown, Denis Vida, Neil Hindley, Christoph Jacobi, Damian Murphy, Ricardo Buriti, Vania Andrioli, Paulo Batista, John Marino, Scott Palo, Denise Thorsen, Masaki Tsutsumi, Njål Gulbrandsen, Satonori Nozawa, Mark Lester, Kathrin Baumgarten, Johan Kero, Evgenia Belova, Nicholas Mitchell, Tracy Moffat-Griffin, and Na Li
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4851–4873, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4851-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4851-2024, 2024
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On 15 January 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai volcano exploded in a vigorous eruption, causing many atmospheric phenomena reaching from the surface up to space. In this study, we investigate how the mesospheric winds were affected by the volcanogenic gravity waves and estimated their propagation direction and speed. The interplay between model and observations permits us to gain new insights into the vertical coupling through atmospheric gravity waves.
Kangwen Sun, Guangyao Dai, Songhua Wu, Oliver Reitebuch, Holger Baars, Jiqiao Liu, and Suping Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4389–4409, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4389-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4389-2024, 2024
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This paper investigates the correlation between marine aerosol optical properties and wind speeds over remote oceans using the spaceborne lidars ALADIN and CALIOP. Three remote ocean areas are selected. Pure marine aerosol optical properties at 355 nm are derived from ALADIN. The relationships between marine aerosol optical properties and wind speeds are analyzed within and above the marine atmospheric boundary layer, revealing the effect of wind speed on marine aerosols over remote oceans.
Timothy P. Banyard, Corwin J. Wright, Scott M. Osprey, Neil P. Hindley, Gemma Halloran, Lawrence Coy, Paul A. Newman, Neal Butchart, Martina Bramberger, and M. Joan Alexander
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2465–2490, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2465-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2465-2024, 2024
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In 2019/2020, the tropical stratospheric wind phenomenon known as the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) was disrupted for only the second time in the historical record. This was poorly forecasted, and we want to understand why. We used measurements from the first Doppler wind lidar in space, Aeolus, to observe the disruption in an unprecedented way. Our results reveal important differences between Aeolus and the ERA5 reanalysis that affect the timing of the disruption's onset and its evolution.
Xue Wu, Lars Hoffmann, Corwin J. Wright, Neil P. Hindley, M. Joan Alexander, Silvio Kalisch, Xin Wang, Bing Chen, Yinan Wang, and Daren Lyu
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-3008, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-3008, 2024
Preprint archived
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This study identified a noteworthy time-lagged correlation between hurricane intensity and stratospheric gravity wave intensities during hurricane intensification. Meanwhile, the study reveals distinct frequencies, horizontal wavelengths, and vertical wavelengths in the inner core region during hurricane intensification, offering essential insights for monitoring hurricane intensity via satellite observations of stratospheric gravity waves.
Manfred Ern, Mohamadou A. Diallo, Dina Khordakova, Isabell Krisch, Peter Preusse, Oliver Reitebuch, Jörn Ungermann, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9549–9583, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9549-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9549-2023, 2023
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Quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) of the stratospheric tropical winds is an important mode of climate variability but is not well reproduced in free-running climate models. We use the novel global wind observations by the Aeolus satellite and radiosondes to show that the QBO is captured well in three modern reanalyses (ERA-5, JRA-55, and MERRA-2). Good agreement is also found also between Aeolus and reanalyses for large-scale tropical wave modes in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere.
Benjamin Witschas, Christian Lemmerz, Alexander Geiß, Oliver Lux, Uwe Marksteiner, Stephan Rahm, Oliver Reitebuch, Andreas Schäfler, and Fabian Weiler
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 7049–7070, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-7049-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-7049-2022, 2022
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In August 2018, the first wind lidar Aeolus was launched into space and has since then been providing data of the global wind field. The primary goal of Aeolus was the improvement of numerical weather prediction. To verify the quality of Aeolus wind data, DLR performed four airborne validation campaigns with two wind lidar systems. In this paper, we report on results from the two later campaigns, performed in Iceland and the tropics.
Oliver Lux, Benjamin Witschas, Alexander Geiß, Christian Lemmerz, Fabian Weiler, Uwe Marksteiner, Stephan Rahm, Andreas Schäfler, and Oliver Reitebuch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6467–6488, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6467-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6467-2022, 2022
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We discuss the influence of different quality control schemes on the results of Aeolus wind product validation and present statistical tools for ensuring consistency and comparability among diverse validation studies with regard to the specific error characteristics of the Rayleigh-clear and Mie-cloudy winds. The developed methods are applied for the validation of Aeolus winds against an ECMWF model background and airborne wind lidar data from the Joint Aeolus Tropical Atlantic Campaign.
Zachary D. Lawrence, Marta Abalos, Blanca Ayarzagüena, David Barriopedro, Amy H. Butler, Natalia Calvo, Alvaro de la Cámara, Andrew Charlton-Perez, Daniela I. V. Domeisen, Etienne Dunn-Sigouin, Javier García-Serrano, Chaim I. Garfinkel, Neil P. Hindley, Liwei Jia, Martin Jucker, Alexey Y. Karpechko, Hera Kim, Andrea L. Lang, Simon H. Lee, Pu Lin, Marisol Osman, Froila M. Palmeiro, Judith Perlwitz, Inna Polichtchouk, Jadwiga H. Richter, Chen Schwartz, Seok-Woo Son, Irene Erner, Masakazu Taguchi, Nicholas L. Tyrrell, Corwin J. Wright, and Rachel W.-Y. Wu
Weather Clim. Dynam., 3, 977–1001, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-977-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-977-2022, 2022
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Forecast models that are used to predict weather often struggle to represent the Earth’s stratosphere. This may impact their ability to predict surface weather weeks in advance, on subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) timescales. We use data from many S2S forecast systems to characterize and compare the stratospheric biases present in such forecast models. These models have many similar stratospheric biases, but they tend to be worse in systems with low model tops located within the stratosphere.
Neil P. Hindley, Nicholas J. Mitchell, Neil Cobbett, Anne K. Smith, Dave C. Fritts, Diego Janches, Corwin J. Wright, and Tracy Moffat-Griffin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9435–9459, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9435-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9435-2022, 2022
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We present observations of winds in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) from a recently installed meteor radar on the remote island of South Georgia (54° S, 36° W). We characterise mean winds, tides, planetary waves, and gravity waves in the MLT at this location and compare our measured winds with a leading climate model. We find that the observed wintertime winds are unexpectedly reversed from model predictions, probably because of missing impacts of secondary gravity waves in the model.
Phoebe Noble, Neil Hindley, Corwin Wright, Chihoko Cullens, Scott England, Nicholas Pedatella, Nicholas Mitchell, and Tracy Moffat-Griffin
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-150, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-150, 2022
Revised manuscript not accepted
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We use long term radar data and the WACCM-X model to study the impact of dynamical phenomena, including the 11-year solar cycle, ENSO, QBO and SAM, on Antarctic mesospheric winds. We find that in summer, the zonal wind (both observationally and in the model) is strongly correlated with the solar cycle. We also see important differences in the results from the other processes. In addition we find important and large biases in the winter model zonal winds relative to the observations.
Benjamin Witschas, Christian Lemmerz, Oliver Lux, Uwe Marksteiner, Oliver Reitebuch, Fabian Weiler, Frederic Fabre, Alain Dabas, Thomas Flament, Dorit Huber, and Michael Vaughan
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1465–1489, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1465-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1465-2022, 2022
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In August 2018, the ESA launched the first Doppler wind lidar into space. In order to calibrate the instrument and to monitor the overall instrument conditions, instrument spectral registration measurements have been performed with Aeolus on a weekly basis. Based on these measurements, the alignment drift of the Aeolus satellite instrument is estimated by applying tools and mathematical model functions to analyze the spectrometer transmission curves.
Oliver Lux, Christian Lemmerz, Fabian Weiler, Uwe Marksteiner, Benjamin Witschas, Stephan Rahm, Alexander Geiß, Andreas Schäfler, and Oliver Reitebuch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1303–1331, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1303-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1303-2022, 2022
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The article discusses modifications in the wind retrieval of the ALADIN Airborne Demonstrator (A2D) – one of the key instruments for the validation of Aeolus. Thanks to the retrieval refinements, which are demonstrated in the context of two airborne campaigns in 2019, the systematic and random wind errors of the A2D were significantly reduced, thereby enhancing its validation capabilities. Finally, wind comparisons between A2D and Aeolus for the validation of the satellite data are presented.
Songhua Wu, Kangwen Sun, Guangyao Dai, Xiaoye Wang, Xiaoying Liu, Bingyi Liu, Xiaoquan Song, Oliver Reitebuch, Rongzhong Li, Jiaping Yin, and Xitao Wang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 131–148, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-131-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-131-2022, 2022
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During the VAL-OUC campaign, we established a coherent Doppler lidar (CDL) network over China to verify the Level 2B (L2B) products from Aeolus. By the simultaneous wind measurements with CDLs at 17 stations, the L2B products from Aeolus are compared with those from CDLs. To our knowledge, the VAL-OUC campaign is the most extensive so far between CDLs and Aeolus in the lower troposphere for different atmospheric scenes. The vertical velocity impact on the HLOS retrieval from Aeolus is evaluated.
Corwin J. Wright, Richard J. Hall, Timothy P. Banyard, Neil P. Hindley, Isabell Krisch, Daniel M. Mitchell, and William J. M. Seviour
Weather Clim. Dynam., 2, 1283–1301, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2-1283-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2-1283-2021, 2021
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Major sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) are some of the most dramatic events in the atmosphere and are believed to help cause extreme winter weather events such as the 2018 Beast from the East in Europe and North America. Here, we use unique data from the European Space Agency's new Aeolus satellite to make the first-ever measurements at a global scale of wind changes due to an SSW in the lower part of the atmosphere to help us understand how SSWs affect the atmosphere and surface weather.
Fabian Weiler, Michael Rennie, Thomas Kanitz, Lars Isaksen, Elena Checa, Jos de Kloe, Ngozi Okunde, and Oliver Reitebuch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7167–7185, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7167-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7167-2021, 2021
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This paper summarizes the identification and correction of one of the most important systematic error sources for the wind measurements of the ESA satellite Aeolus. It depicts the effects of small temperature variations in the primary telescope mirror on the quality of the wind products and describes the approach to correct for it in the near-real-time processing. Moreover, the performance of the correction approach is assessed, and alternative approaches are discussed.
Oliver Lux, Christian Lemmerz, Fabian Weiler, Thomas Kanitz, Denny Wernham, Gonçalo Rodrigues, Andrew Hyslop, Olivier Lecrenier, Phil McGoldrick, Frédéric Fabre, Paolo Bravetti, Tommaso Parrinello, and Oliver Reitebuch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 6305–6333, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6305-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6305-2021, 2021
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The work assesses the frequency stability of the laser transmitters on board Aeolus and discusses its influence on the quality of the global wind data. Excellent frequency stability of the space lasers is evident, although enhanced frequency noise occurs at certain locations along the orbit due to micro-vibrations that are introduced by the satellite’s reaction wheels. The study elaborates on this finding and investigates the extent to which the enhanced frequency noise increases the wind error.
Corwin J. Wright, Neil P. Hindley, M. Joan Alexander, Laura A. Holt, and Lars Hoffmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 5873–5886, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5873-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5873-2021, 2021
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Measuring atmospheric gravity waves in low vertical-resolution data is technically challenging, especially when the waves are significantly longer in the vertical than in the length of the measurement domain. We introduce and demonstrate a modification to the existing Stockwell transform methods of characterising these waves that address these problems, with no apparent reduction in the other capabilities of the technique.
Fabian Weiler, Thomas Kanitz, Denny Wernham, Michael Rennie, Dorit Huber, Marc Schillinger, Olivier Saint-Pe, Ray Bell, Tommaso Parrinello, and Oliver Reitebuch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 5153–5177, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5153-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5153-2021, 2021
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This paper reports on dark current signal anomalies of the detectors used on board the ESA's Earth Explorer satellite Aeolus during the first 1.5 years in orbit. After introducing sophisticated algorithms to classify dark current anomalies according to their characteristics, the impact of the different kinds of anomalies on wind measurements is discussed. In addition, mitigation approaches for the wind retrieval are presented and potential root causes are discussed.
Markus Geldenhuys, Peter Preusse, Isabell Krisch, Christoph Zülicke, Jörn Ungermann, Manfred Ern, Felix Friedl-Vallon, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 10393–10412, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10393-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10393-2021, 2021
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A large-scale gravity wave (GW) was observed spanning the whole of Greenland. The GWs proposed in this paper come from a new jet–topography mechanism. The topography compresses the flow and triggers a change in u- and
v-wind components. The jet becomes out of geostrophic balance and sheds energy in the form of GWs to restore the balance. This topography–jet interaction was not previously considered by the community, rendering the impact of the gravity waves largely unaccounted for.
Neil P. Hindley, Corwin J. Wright, Alan M. Gadian, Lars Hoffmann, John K. Hughes, David R. Jackson, John C. King, Nicholas J. Mitchell, Tracy Moffat-Griffin, Andrew C. Moss, Simon B. Vosper, and Andrew N. Ross
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 7695–7722, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-7695-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-7695-2021, 2021
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One limitation of numerical atmospheric models is spatial resolution. For atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) generated over small mountainous islands, the driving effect of these waves on atmospheric circulations can be underestimated. Here we use a specialised high-resolution model over South Georgia island to compare simulated stratospheric GWs to colocated 3-D satellite observations. We find reasonable model agreement with observations, with some GW amplitudes much larger than expected.
Anne Martin, Martin Weissmann, Oliver Reitebuch, Michael Rennie, Alexander Geiß, and Alexander Cress
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2167–2183, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2167-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2167-2021, 2021
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This study provides an overview of validation activities to determine the Aeolus HLOS wind errors and to understand the biases by investigating possible dependencies and testing bias correction approaches. To ensure meaningful validation statistics, collocated radiosondes and two different global NWP models, the ECMWF IFS and the ICON model (DWD), are used as reference data. To achieve an estimate for the Aeolus instrumental error the representativeness errors for the comparisons are evaluated.
Isabell Krisch, Manfred Ern, Lars Hoffmann, Peter Preusse, Cornelia Strube, Jörn Ungermann, Wolfgang Woiwode, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 11469–11490, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11469-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11469-2020, 2020
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In 2016, a scientific research flight above Scandinavia acquired various atmospheric data (temperature, gas composition, etc.). Through advanced 3-D reconstruction methods, a superposition of multiple gravity waves was identified. An in-depth analysis enabled the characterisation of these waves as well as the identification of their sources. This work will enable a better understanding of atmosphere dynamics and could lead to improved climate projections.
Benjamin Witschas, Christian Lemmerz, Alexander Geiß, Oliver Lux, Uwe Marksteiner, Stephan Rahm, Oliver Reitebuch, and Fabian Weiler
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 2381–2396, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2381-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2381-2020, 2020
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Aeolus, the first ever wind lidar in space, has been providing wind profiles on a global scale since its launch. In order to validate the quality of Aeolus wind observations, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) recently performed two airborne campaigns over central Europe deploying two different Doppler wind lidars. A total of 10 satellite underflights were performed and used to validate the early-stage wind data product of Aeolus by means of collocated airborne wind lidar observations.
Oliver Lux, Christian Lemmerz, Fabian Weiler, Uwe Marksteiner, Benjamin Witschas, Stephan Rahm, Alexander Geiß, and Oliver Reitebuch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 2075–2097, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2075-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2075-2020, 2020
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This work reports on the first airborne validation campaign of ESA’s Earth Explorer mission Aeolus, conducted in central Europe during the commissioning phase in November 2018. After presenting the methodology used to compare the data sets from the satellite, the airborne wind lidar and the ECWMF model, the wind results from the underflights performed are analyzed and discussed, providing a first assessment of the accuracy and precision of the preliminary Aeolus wind data.
Xiaochun Zhai, Uwe Marksteiner, Fabian Weiler, Christian Lemmerz, Oliver Lux, Benjamin Witschas, and Oliver Reitebuch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 445–465, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-445-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-445-2020, 2020
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An airborne prototype called A2D was developed for validating the Aeolus measurement principle based on realistic atmospheric signals. However, the atmospheric and instrumental variability currently limit the reliability and repeatability of the measured Rayleigh response calibration (MRRC), which is a prerequisite for accurate wind retrieval. A procedure for a simulated Rayleigh response calibration (SRRC) is developed and presented to resolve these limitations of the A2D Rayleigh channel MRRC.
Neil P. Hindley, Corwin J. Wright, Nathan D. Smith, Lars Hoffmann, Laura A. Holt, M. Joan Alexander, Tracy Moffat-Griffin, and Nicholas J. Mitchell
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 15377–15414, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-15377-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-15377-2019, 2019
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In this study, a 3–D Stockwell transform is applied to AIRS–Aqua satellite observations in the first extended 3–D study of stratospheric gravity waves over the Southern Ocean during winter. A dynamic environment is revealed that contains some of the most intense gravity wave sources on Earth. A particularly striking result is a large–scale meridional convergence of gravity wave momentum flux towards latitudes near 60 °S, something which is not normally considered in model parameterisations.
Young-Ha Kim, George N. Kiladis, John R. Albers, Juliana Dias, Masatomo Fujiwara, James A. Anstey, In-Sun Song, Corwin J. Wright, Yoshio Kawatani, François Lott, and Changhyun Yoo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 10027–10050, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10027-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10027-2019, 2019
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Reanalyses are widely used products of meteorological variables, generated using observational data and assimilation systems. We compare six modern reanalyses, with focus on their representation of equatorial waves which are important in stratospheric variability and stratosphere–troposphere exchange. Agreement/spreads among the reanalyses in the spectral properties and spatial distributions of the waves are examined, and satellite impacts on the wave representation in reanalyses are discussed.
Lukas Krasauskas, Jörn Ungermann, Stefan Ensmann, Isabell Krisch, Erik Kretschmer, Peter Preusse, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 853–872, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-853-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-853-2019, 2019
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Many limb sounder measurements from the same atmospheric region taken at different angles can be combined into a 3-D tomographic image of the atmosphere. Mathematically, this is a complex, computationally expensive, underdetermined problem that needs additional constraints (regularisation). We introduce an improved regularisation method based on physical properties of the atmosphere with a new irregular grid implementation. Simulated data tests show improved results and lower computational cost.
Wolfgang Woiwode, Andreas Dörnbrack, Martina Bramberger, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Florian Haenel, Michael Höpfner, Sören Johansson, Erik Kretschmer, Isabell Krisch, Thomas Latzko, Hermann Oelhaf, Johannes Orphal, Peter Preusse, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, and Jörn Ungermann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 15643–15667, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15643-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15643-2018, 2018
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GLORIA observations during two crossings of the polar front jet stream resolve the fine mesoscale structure of a tropopause fold in high detail. Tracer–tracer correlations of H2O and O3 are presented as a function of potential temperature and reveal an active mixing region. Our study confirms conceptual models of tropopause folds, validates the high quality of ECMWF IFS forecasts, and suggests that mountain waves are capable of modulating exchange processes in the vicinity of tropopause folds.
Corwin J. Wright and Neil P. Hindley
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 13703–13731, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13703-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13703-2018, 2018
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Reanalyses (RAs) are models which assimilate observations and are widely used as proxies for the true atmospheric state. Here, we resample six leading RAs using the weighting functions of four high-res satellite instruments, allowing a like-for-like comparison. We find that the RAs generally reproduce the satellite data well, except at high altitudes and in the tropics. However, we also find that the RAs more tightly correlate with each other than with observations, even those they assimilate.
Isabell Krisch, Jörn Ungermann, Peter Preusse, Erik Kretschmer, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4327–4344, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4327-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4327-2018, 2018
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Three-dimensional temperature measurements of the atmosphere are required to address current research questions concerning the propagation of gravity waves. Limited angle tomography (LAT) with measurements from an airborne infrared limb imager can provide such 3-D temperature measurements. Wave parameters derived from such LAT measurements achieve an accuracy similar to that derived from full angle tomography, if the orientation of the flight path is optimized with respect to the gravity wave.
Anne Kleinert, Isabell Krisch, Jörn Ungermann, Albert Adibekyan, Berndt Gutschwager, and Christian Monte
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3871–3882, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3871-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3871-2018, 2018
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This study investigates the required accuracy of radiometric calibration sources for remote sensing instruments to properly resolve decadal trends of climate relevant trace species like ozone, water vapor and temperature. The required temperature knowledge of the calibration source is in the order of 100 mK. This is demonstrated by a Monte Carlo simulation. The results are confirmed using real measurements acquired by the GLORIA instrument.
Oliver Lux, Christian Lemmerz, Fabian Weiler, Uwe Marksteiner, Benjamin Witschas, Stephan Rahm, Andreas Schäfler, and Oliver Reitebuch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3297–3322, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3297-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3297-2018, 2018
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This work reports airborne wind lidar observations performed in a recent field campaign. The deployed lidar system serves as a demonstrator for the satellite instrument ALADIN on board Aeolus, which is scheduled for launch in 2018 and will become the first wind lidar in space. After presenting the measurement principle, operation procedures and wind retrieval algorithm, the obtained wind results are validated and discussed, providing valuable information in preparation for the satellite mission.
Isabell Krisch, Peter Preusse, Jörn Ungermann, Andreas Dörnbrack, Stephen D. Eckermann, Manfred Ern, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Martin Kaufmann, Hermann Oelhaf, Markus Rapp, Cornelia Strube, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 14937–14953, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14937-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14937-2017, 2017
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Using the infrared limb imager GLORIA, the 3-D structure of mesoscale gravity waves in the lower stratosphere was measured for the first time, allowing for a complete 3-D characterization of the waves. This enables the precise determination of the sources of the waves in the mountain regions of Iceland with backward ray tracing. Forward ray tracing shows oblique propagation, an effect generally neglected in global atmospheric models.
Corwin J. Wright, Neil P. Hindley, Lars Hoffmann, M. Joan Alexander, and Nicholas J. Mitchell
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 8553–8575, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-8553-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-8553-2017, 2017
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We introduce a novel 3-D method of measuring atmospheric gravity waves, based around a 3-D Stockwell transform. Our method lets us measure new properties, including wave intrinsic frequencies and phase and group velocities. We apply it to data from the AIRS satellite instrument over the Southern Andes for two consecutive winters. Our results show clear evidence that the waves measured are primarily orographic in origin, and that their group velocity vectors are focused into the polar night jet.
Fernando Chouza, Oliver Reitebuch, Angela Benedetti, and Bernadett Weinzierl
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 11581–11600, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11581-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11581-2016, 2016
Manfred Ern, Quang Thai Trinh, Martin Kaufmann, Isabell Krisch, Peter Preusse, Jörn Ungermann, Yajun Zhu, John C. Gille, Martin G. Mlynczak, James M. Russell III, Michael J. Schwartz, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 9983–10019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-9983-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-9983-2016, 2016
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Sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) influence the atmospheric circulation over a large range of altitudes and latitudes. We investigate the global distribution of small-scale gravity waves (GWs) during SSWs as derived from 13 years of satellite observations.
We find that GWs may play an important role for triggering SSWs by preconditioning the polar vortex, as well as during long-lasting vortex recovery phases after SSWs. The GW distribution during SSWs displays strong day-to-day variability.
Neil P. Hindley, Nathan D. Smith, Corwin J. Wright, D. Andrew S. Rees, and Nicholas J. Mitchell
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 2545–2565, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2545-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2545-2016, 2016
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Gravity waves are medium-sized momentum-carrying atmospheric waves that nearly all weather and climate models struggle to represent. Thus, the accurate global measurement of gravity-wave properties in the real atmosphere is of key importance. Here we use a new two-dimensional Stockwell transform (2-DST) method to measure key GW properties in 2-D satellite data. We show that our 2-DST approach greatly improves upon current methods, particularly if a new elliptical spectral window is used.
Fernando Chouza, Oliver Reitebuch, Michael Jähn, Stephan Rahm, and Bernadett Weinzierl
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 4675–4692, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-4675-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-4675-2016, 2016
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This study presents the analysis of island induced gravity waves observed by an airborne Doppler wind lidar (DWL). First, the instrumental corrections required for the retrieval vertical wind measurements from an airborne DWL are presented. Then, the method is applied to two case studies to determine, in combination with numerical models and in situ measurements, the main characteristics of the observed waves.
M. Jähn, D. Muñoz-Esparza, F. Chouza, O. Reitebuch, O. Knoth, M. Haarig, and A. Ansmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 651–674, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-651-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-651-2016, 2016
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Large eddy simulations (LESs) are performed for the area of the Caribbean island Barbados to investigate island effects on boundary layer modification, cloud generation and vertical mixing of aerosols. Incoming Saharan dust layers are analyzed and effects of layer thinning, subsidence and turbulent downward transport become apparent, which are sensitive to atmospheric stability and wind shear. Comparisons of LES model output with lidar data systems are made to validate the modeling results.
F. Chouza, O. Reitebuch, S. Groß, S. Rahm, V. Freudenthaler, C. Toledano, and B. Weinzierl
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 2909–2926, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-2909-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-2909-2015, 2015
Related subject area
Subject: Others (Wind, Precipitation, Temperature, etc.) | Technique: Remote Sensing | Topic: Data Processing and Information Retrieval
Gravity waves above the northern Atlantic and Europe during streamer events using Aeolus
Observations of tall-building wakes using a scanning Doppler lidar
Mid-Atlantic nocturnal low-level jet characteristics: a machine learning analysis of radar wind profiles
Mitigating radome-induced bias in X-band weather radar polarimetric moments using an adaptive discrete Fourier transform algorithm
GNSS-RO residual ionospheric error (RIE): a new method and assessment
Benchmarking KDP in rainfall: a quantitative assessment of estimation algorithms using C-band weather radar observations
Comparative experimental validation of microwave hyperspectral atmospheric soundings in clear-sky conditions
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occultation climatologies mapped by machine learning and Bayesian interpolation
Determination of low-level temperature profiles from microwave radiometer observations during rain
Aeolus lidar surface return (LSR) at 355 nm as a new Aeolus Level-2A product
Sampling the diurnal and annual cycles of the Earth's energy imbalance with constellations of satellite-borne radiometers
Retrieval of top-of-atmosphere fluxes from combined EarthCARE lidar, imager, and broadband radiometer observations: the BMA-FLX product
Analysis of the measurement uncertainty for a 3D wind lidar
Improving solution availability and temporal consistency of an optimal-estimation physical retrieval for ground-based thermodynamic boundary layer profiling
An improved geolocation methodology for spaceborne radar and lidar systems
Combining low- and high-frequency microwave radiometer measurements from the MOSAiC expedition for enhanced water vapour products
Characterizing Urban Planetary Boundary Layer Dynamics Using 3-Year Doppler Wind Lidar Measurements in a Western Yangtze River Delta City, China
HAMSTER: Hyperspectral Albedo Maps dataset with high Spatial and TEmporal Resolution
Improved consistency in solar-induced fluorescence retrievals from GOME-2A with the SIFTER v3 algorithm
Global-scale gravity wave analysis methodology for the ESA Earth Explorer 11 candidate CAIRT
Retrieval of pseudo-BRDF-adjusted surface reflectance at 440 nm from the Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS)
Combining commercial microwave links and weather radar for classification of dry snow and rainfall
Drop size distribution retrieval using dual-polarization radar at C-band and S-band
An information content approach to diagnosing and improving CLIMCAPS retrievals across instruments and satellites
Thermal tides in the middle atmosphere at mid-latitudes measured with a ground-based microwave radiometer
Global sensitivity analysis of simulated remote sensing polarimetric observations over snow
Improving the Gaussianity of radar reflectivity departures between observations and simulations using symmetric rain rates
On the temperature stability requirements of free-running Nd:YAG lasers for atmospheric temperature profiling through the rotational Raman technique
Limitations in wavelet analysis of non-stationary atmospheric gravity wave signatures in temperature profiles
A new non-linearity correction method for the spectrum from the Geostationary Inferometric Infrared Sounder on board Fengyun-4 satellites and its preliminary assessments
Determination of high-precision tropospheric delays using crowdsourced smartphone GNSS data
Unfiltering of the EarthCARE Broadband Radiometer (BBR) observations: the BM-RAD product
Variance estimations in the presence of intermittent interference and their applications to incoherent scatter radar signal processing
A clustering-based method for identifying and tracking squall lines
A multi-instrument fuzzy logic boundary-layer-top detection algorithm
Sensitivity of thermodynamic profiles retrieved from ground-based microwave and infrared observations to additional input data from active remote sensing instruments and numerical weather prediction models
Scale separation for gravity wave analysis from 3D temperature observations in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) region
Estimating the refractivity bias of FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occultation in the deep troposphere
Observed impact of the GNSS clock data rate on Radio Occultation bending angles for Sentinel-6A and COSMIC-2
High Spectral Resolution Lidar – generation 2 (HSRL-2) retrievals of ocean surface wind speed: methodology and evaluation
Dual adaptive differential threshold method for automated detection of faint and strong echo features in radar observations of winter storms
Noise filtering options for conically scanning Doppler lidar measurements with low pulse accumulation
Measuring rainfall using microwave links: the influence of temporal sampling
Drone-based photogrammetry combined with deep learning to estimate hail size distributions and melting of hail on the ground
The High lAtitude sNowfall Detection and Estimation aLgorithm for ATMS (HANDEL-ATMS): a new algorithm for snowfall retrieval at high latitudes
Next-generation radiance unfiltering process for the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System instrument
Improved rain event detection in commercial microwave link time series via combination with MSG SEVIRI data
A directional surface reflectance climatology determined from TROPOMI observations
Investigation of gravity waves using measurements from a sodium temperature/wind lidar operated in multi-direction mode
An improved BRDF hotspot model and its use in VLIDORT for studying the impact of atmospheric scattering on hotspot directional signatures in the atmosphere
Sabine Wüst, Lisa Küchelbacher, Franziska Trinkl, and Michael Bittner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1591–1607, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1591-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1591-2025, 2025
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Information on the energy transported by atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) is crucial for improving atmosphere models. Most space-based studies report the potential energy. We use Aeolus wind data to estimate the kinetic energy (density). However, the data quality is a challenge for such analyses, as the accuracy of the data is in the range of typical GW amplitudes. We find a temporal coincidence between enhanced or breaking planetary waves and enhanced gravity wave kinetic energy density.
Natalie E. Theeuwes, Janet F. Barlow, Antti Mannisenaho, Denise Hertwig, Ewan O'Connor, and Alan Robins
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1355–1371, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1355-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1355-2025, 2025
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A Doppler lidar was placed in a highly built-up area in London to measure wakes from tall buildings during a period of 1 year. We were able to detect wakes and assess their dependence on wind speed, wind direction, and atmospheric stability.
Maurice Roots, John T. Sullivan, and Belay Demoz
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1269–1282, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1269-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1269-2025, 2025
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This paper presents a supervised-machine-learning approach for the automatic isolation of nocturnal low-level jets (NLLJs) using observations from a radar wind profiler. This analysis isolated 90 southwesterly NLLJs observed from May to September 2017–2021, highlighting key features in the evolution and morphology of the mid-Atlantic NLLJ.
Padmanabhan Thiruvengadam, Guillaume Lesage, Ambinintsoa Volatiana Ramanamahefa, and Joël Van Baelen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1185–1191, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1185-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1185-2025, 2025
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This study explores how the joints in a weather radar's protective cover affect its measurements. We developed a new method to correct these errors, improving the accuracy of the radar's data. Our method was tested during an intense cyclone on Réunion Island, demonstrating significant improvements in data accuracy. This research is crucial for enhancing weather predictions and understanding, particularly in challenging terrains.
Dong L. Wu, Valery A. Yudin, Kyu-Myong Kim, Mohar Chattopadhyay, Lawrence Coy, Ruth S. Lieberman, C. C. Jude H. Salinas, Jae N. Lee, Jie Gong, and Guiping Liu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 843–863, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-843-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-843-2025, 2025
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Global Navigation Satellite System radio occultation data help monitor climate and weather prediction but are affected by residual ionospheric errors (RIEs). A new excess-phase-gradient method detects and corrects RIEs, showing both positive and negative values, varying by latitude, time, and solar activity. Tests show that RIE impacts polar stratosphere temperatures in models, with differences up to 3–4 K. This highlights the need for RIE correction to improve the accuracy of data assimilation.
Miguel Aldana, Seppo Pulkkinen, Annakaisa von Lerber, Matthew R. Kumjian, and Dmitri Moisseev
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 793–816, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-793-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-793-2025, 2025
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Accurate KDP estimates are crucial in radar-based applications. We quantify the uncertainties of several publicly available KDP estimation methods for multiple rainfall intensities. We use C-band weather radar observations and employed a self-consistency KDP, estimated from reflectivity and differential reflectivity, as a framework for the examination. Our study provides guidance for the performance, uncertainties, and optimisation of the methods, focusing mainly on accuracy and robustness.
Lei Liu, Natalia Bliankinshtein, Yi Huang, John R. Gyakum, Philip M. Gabriel, Shiqi Xu, and Mengistu Wolde
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 471–485, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-471-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-471-2025, 2025
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This study evaluates and compares a new microwave hyperspectrometer with an infrared hyperspectrometer for clear-sky temperature and water vapor retrievals. The analysis reveals that the information content of the infrared hyperspectrometer exceeds that of the microwave hyperspectrometer and provides higher vertical resolution in ground-based zenith measurements. Leveraging the ground–airborne synergy between the two instruments yielded optimal sounding results.
Endrit Shehaj, Stephen Leroy, Kerri Cahoy, Alain Geiger, Laura Crocetti, Gregor Moeller, Benedikt Soja, and Markus Rothacher
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 57–72, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-57-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-57-2025, 2025
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This work investigates whether machine learning (ML) can offer an alternative to existing methods to map radio occultation (RO) products, allowing the extraction of information not visible in direct observations. ML can further improve the results of Bayesian interpolation, a state-of-the-art method to map RO observations. The results display improvements in horizontal and temporal domains, at heights ranging from the planetary boundary layer up to the lower stratosphere, and for all seasons.
Andreas Foth, Moritz Lochmann, Pablo Saavedra Garfias, and Heike Kalesse-Los
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 7169–7181, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-7169-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-7169-2024, 2024
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Microwave radiometers are usually not able to provide atmospheric quantities such as temperature profiles during rain. We present a method based on a selection of specific frequencies and elevation angles from microwave radiometer observations. A comparison with a numerical weather prediction model shows the presented method allows low-level temperature profiles during rain to be resolved, with rain rates of up to 2.5 mm h−1,, which was not possible before with state-of-the-art retrievals.
Lev D. Labzovskii, Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff, David P. Donovan, Jos de Kloe, L. Gijsbert Tilstra, Ad Stoffelen, Damien Josset, and Piet Stammes
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 7183–7208, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-7183-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-7183-2024, 2024
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The Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument (ALADIN) on the Aeolus satellite was the first of its kind to measure high-resolution vertical profiles of aerosols and cloud properties from space. We present an algorithm that produces Aeolus lidar surface returns (LSRs), containing useful information for measuring UV reflectivity. Aeolus LSRs matched well with existing UV reflectivity data from other satellites, like GOME-2 and TROPOMI, and demonstrated excellent sensitivity to modeled snow cover.
Thomas Hocking, Thorsten Mauritsen, and Linda Megner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 7077–7095, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-7077-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-7077-2024, 2024
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The imbalance between the energy the Earth absorbs from the Sun and the energy the Earth emits back into space gives rise to climate change, but measuring the small imbalance is challenging. We simulate satellites in various orbits to investigate how well they sample the imbalance and find that the best option is to combine at least two satellites that see complementary parts of the Earth and cover the daily and annual cycles. This information is useful when planning future satellite missions.
Almudena Velázquez Blázquez, Carlos Domenech, Edward Baudrez, Nicolas Clerbaux, Carla Salas Molar, and Nils Madenach
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 7007–7026, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-7007-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-7007-2024, 2024
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This paper focuses on the BMA-FLX processor, in which thermal and solar top-of-atmosphere radiative fluxes are obtained from longwave and shortwave radiances measured along track by the EarthCARE Broadband Radiometer (BBR). The BBR measurements, at three fixed viewing angles (fore, nadir, aft), are co-registered either at the surface or at a reference level. A combined flux from the three BRR views is obtained. The algorithm has been successfully validated against test scenes.
Wolf Knöller, Gholamhossein Bagheri, Philipp von Olshausen, and Michael Wilczek
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6913–6931, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6913-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6913-2024, 2024
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Three-dimensional (3D) wind velocity measurements are of major importance for the characterization of atmospheric turbulence. This paper presents a detailed study of the measurement uncertainty of a three-beam wind lidar designed for mounting on airborne platforms. Considering the geometrical constraints, the analysis provides quantitative estimates for the measurement uncertainty of all components of the 3D wind vector. As a result, we propose optimized post-processing for error reduction.
Bianca Adler, David D. Turner, Laura Bianco, Irina V. Djalalova, Timothy Myers, and James M. Wilczak
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6603–6624, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6603-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6603-2024, 2024
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Continuous profile observations of temperature and humidity in the lowest part of the atmosphere are essential for the evaluation of numerical weather prediction models and data assimilation for better weather forecasts. Such profiles can be retrieved from passive ground-based remote sensing instruments like infrared spectrometers and microwave radiometers. In this study, we describe three recent modifications to the retrieval framework TROPoe for improved temperature and humidity profiles.
Bernat Puigdomènech Treserras and Pavlos Kollias
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6301–6314, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6301-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6301-2024, 2024
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The paper presents a comprehensive approach to improve the geolocation accuracy of spaceborne radar and lidar systems, crucial for the successful interpretation of data from the upcoming EarthCARE mission. The paper details the technical background of the presented methods and various examples of geolocation analyses, including a short period of CloudSat observations when the star tracker was not operating properly and lifetime statistics from the CloudSat and CALIPSO missions.
Andreas Walbröl, Hannes J. Griesche, Mario Mech, Susanne Crewell, and Kerstin Ebell
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6223–6245, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6223-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6223-2024, 2024
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We developed retrievals of integrated water vapour (IWV), temperature profiles, and humidity profiles from ground-based passive microwave remote sensing measurements gathered during the MOSAiC expedition. We demonstrate and quantify the benefit of combining low- and high-frequency microwave radiometers to improve humidity profiling and IWV estimates by comparing the retrieved quantities to single-instrument retrievals and reference datasets (radiosondes).
Tianwen Wei, Mengya Wang, Kenan Wu, Jinlong Yuan, Haiyun Xia, and Simone Lolli
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-178, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-178, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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This study uses three years of wind lidar measurements to investigate the dynamics of the urban PBL in Hefei, China. Results show that nocturnal low-level jets occur most frequently in spring and intensify in summer, significantly increasing turbulence and shear intensity near the ground level, especially during the night. Cloud cover raises the MLH by around 100 m during the night due to the greenhouse effect and decreases it by up to 200 m in the afternoon by obstructing solar radiation.
Giulia Roccetti, Luca Bugliaro, Felix Gödde, Claudia Emde, Ulrich Hamann, Mihail Manev, Michael Fritz Sterzik, and Cedric Wehrum
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6025–6046, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6025-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6025-2024, 2024
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The amount of sunlight reflected by the Earth’s surface (albedo) is vital for the Earth's radiative system. While satellite instruments offer detailed spatial and temporal albedo maps, they only cover seven wavelength bands. We generate albedo maps that fully span the visible and near-infrared range using a machine learning algorithm. These maps reveal how the reflectivity of different land surfaces varies throughout the year. Our dataset enhances the understanding of the Earth's energy balance.
Juliëtte C. S. Anema, K. Folkert Boersma, Lieuwe G. Tilstra, Olaf N. E. Tuinder, and Willem W. Verstraeten
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2666, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2666, 2024
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Long-term records of plant fluorescence offer vital insights into changing vegetation activity. The GOME-2A sensor provides extensive global observations but suffers from calibration and instrument degradation that affect data consistency. This study presents the SIFTER v3 algorithm, which effectively resolves these issues and includes other improvements, resulting in robust, accurate, and consistent GOME-2A fluorescence measurements from 2007 to 2017.
Sebastian Rhode, Peter Preusse, Jörn Ungermann, Inna Polichtchouk, Kaoru Sato, Shingo Watanabe, Manfred Ern, Karlheinz Nogai, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5785–5819, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5785-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5785-2024, 2024
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We investigate the capabilities of a proposed satellite mission, CAIRT, for observing gravity waves throughout the middle atmosphere and present the necessary methodology for in-depth wave analysis. Our findings suggest that such a satellite mission is highly capable of resolving individual wave parameters and could give new insights into the role of gravity waves in general atmospheric circulation and atmospheric processes.
Suyoung Sim, Sungwon Choi, Daeseong Jung, Jongho Woo, Nayeon Kim, Sungwoo Park, Honghee Kim, Ukkyo Jeong, Hyunkee Hong, and Kyung-Soo Han
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5601–5618, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5601-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5601-2024, 2024
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This study evaluates the use of background surface reflectance (BSR) derived from a semi-empirical bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) model based on GEMS satellite images. Analysis shows that BSR provides improved accuracy and stability compared to Lambertian-equivalent reflectivity (LER). These results indicate that BSR can significantly enhance climate analysis and air quality monitoring, making it a promising tool for accurate environmental satellite applications.
Erlend Øydvin, Renaud Gaban, Jafet Andersson, Remco van de Beek, Mareile Astrid Wolff, Nils-Otto Kitterød, Christian Chwala, and Vegard Nilsen
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2625, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2625, 2024
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We present a novel method for classifying rain and snow by combining data from Commercial Microwave Links (CMLs) with weather radar. We compare this to a reference method using dew point temperature for precipitation type classification. Evaluations with nearby disdrometers show that CMLs improve the classification of dry snow and rainfall, outperforming the reference method.
Daniel Durbin, Yadong Wang, and Pao-Liang Chang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5397–5411, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5397-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5397-2024, 2024
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A method for determining drop size distributions (DSDs) for rain using radar measurements from two frequencies at two polarizations is presented. Following some preprocessing and quality control, radar measurements are incorporated into a model that uses swarm intelligence to seek the most suitable DSD to produce the input measurements.
Nadia Smith and Christopher D. Barnet
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2448, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2448, 2024
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CLIMCAPS extends the Aqua AIRS+AMSU record with retrievals from CrIS+ATMS on Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) and Joint Polar Satellite System series (JPSS-1 to JPSS-4). With “continuous” we mean a data record that is consistent in its characterization of natural variation despite changes in source instrumentation. Here we investigate how sounding continuity can improved across the full CLIMCAPS record (2002 to present day) spanning multiple instruments and satellites.
Witali Krochin, Axel Murk, and Gunter Stober
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5015–5028, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5015-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5015-2024, 2024
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Atmospheric tides are global-scale oscillations with periods of a fraction of a day. Their observation in the middle atmosphere is challenging and rare, as it requires continuous measurements with a high temporal resolution. In this paper, temperature time series of a ground-based microwave radiometer were analyzed with a spectral filter to derive thermal tide amplitudes and phases in an altitude range of 25–50 km at the geographical locations of Payerne and Bern (Switzerland).
Matteo Ottaviani, Gabriel Harris Myers, and Nan Chen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4737–4756, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4737-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4737-2024, 2024
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We analyze simulated polarization observations over snow to investigate the capabilities of remote sensing to determine surface and atmospheric properties in snow-covered regions. Polarization measurements are demonstrated to aid in the determination of snow grain shape, ice crystal roughness, and the vertical distribution of impurities in the snow–atmosphere system, data that are critical for estimating snow albedo for use in climate models.
Yudong Gao, Lidou Huyan, Zheng Wu, and Bojun Liu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4675–4686, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4675-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4675-2024, 2024
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A symmetric error model built by symmetric rain rates handles the non-Gaussian error structure of the reflectivity error. The accuracy and linearization of rain rates can further improve the Gaussianity.
José Alex Zenteno-Hernández, Adolfo Comerón, Federico Dios, Alejandro Rodríguez-Gómez, Constantino Muñoz-Porcar, Michaël Sicard, Noemi Franco, Andreas Behrendt, and Paolo Di Girolamo
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4687–4694, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4687-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4687-2024, 2024
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We study how the spectral characteristics of a solid-state laser in an atmospheric temperature profiling lidar using the Raman technique impact the temperature retrieval accuracy. We find that the spectral widening, with respect to a seeded laser, has virtually no impact, while crystal-rod temperature variations in the laser must be kept within a range of 1 K for the uncertainty in the atmospheric temperature below 1 K. The study is carried out through spectroscopy simulations.
Robert Reichert, Natalie Kaifler, and Bernd Kaifler
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4659–4673, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4659-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4659-2024, 2024
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Imagine you want to determine how quickly the pitch of a passing ambulance’s siren changes. If the vehicle is traveling slowly, the pitch changes only slightly, but if it is traveling fast, the pitch also changes rapidly. In a similar way, the wind in the middle atmosphere modulates the wavelength of atmospheric gravity waves. We have investigated the question of how strong the maximum wind may be so that the change in wavelength can still be determined with the help of wavelet transformation.
Qiang Guo, Yuning Liu, Xin Wang, and Wen Hui
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4613–4627, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4613-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4613-2024, 2024
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Non-linearity (NL) correction is a critical procedure to guarantee that the calibration accuracy of a spaceborne sensor approaches a reasonable level. Different from the classical method, a new NL correction method for a spaceborne Fourier transform spectrometer is proposed. To overcome the inaccurate linear coefficient from two-point calibration influencing NL correction, an iteration algorithm is established that is suitable for NL correction of both infrared and microwave sensors.
Yuanxin Pan, Grzegorz Kłopotek, Laura Crocetti, Rudi Weinacker, Tobias Sturn, Linda See, Galina Dick, Gregor Möller, Markus Rothacher, Ian McCallum, Vicente Navarro, and Benedikt Soja
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4303–4316, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4303-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4303-2024, 2024
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Crowdsourced smartphone GNSS data were processed with a dedicated data processing pipeline and could produce millimeter-level accurate estimates of zenith total delay (ZTD) – a critical atmospheric variable. This breakthrough not only demonstrates the feasibility of using ubiquitous devices for high-precision atmospheric monitoring but also underscores the potential for a global, cost-effective tropospheric monitoring network.
Almudena Velázquez Blázquez, Edward Baudrez, Nicolas Clerbaux, and Carlos Domenech
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4245–4256, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4245-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4245-2024, 2024
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The Broadband Radiometer measures shortwave and total-wave radiances filtered by the spectral response of the instrument. To obtain unfiltered solar and thermal radiances, the effect of the spectral response needs to be corrected for, done within the BM-RAD processor. Errors in the unfiltering are propagated into fluxes; thus, accurate unfiltering is required for their proper estimation (within BMA-FLX). Unfiltering errors are estimated to be <0.5 % for the shortwave and <0.1 % for the longwave.
Qihou Zhou, Yanlin Li, and Yun Gong
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4197–4209, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4197-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4197-2024, 2024
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We discuss several robust estimators to compute the variance of a normally distributed random variable to deal with interference. Compared to rank-based estimators, the methods based on the geometric mean are more accurate and are computationally more efficient. We apply three robust estimators to incoherent scatter power and velocity processing, along with the traditional sample mean estimator. The best estimator is a hybrid estimator that combines the sample mean and a robust estimator.
Zhao Shi, Yuxiang Wen, and Jianxin He
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4121–4135, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4121-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4121-2024, 2024
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The squall line is a type of convective system. Squall lines are often associated with damaging weather, so identifying and tracking squall lines plays an important role in early meteorological disaster warnings. A clustering-based method is proposed in this article. It can identify the squall lines within the radar scanning range with an accuracy rate of 95.93 %. It can also provide the three-dimensional structure and movement tracking results for each squall line.
Elizabeth N. Smith and Jacob T. Carlin
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4087–4107, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4087-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4087-2024, 2024
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Boundary-layer height observations remain sparse in time and space. In this study we create a new fuzzy logic method for synergistically combining boundary-layer height estimates from a suite of instruments. These estimates generally compare well to those from radiosondes; plus, the approach offers near-continuous estimates through the entire diurnal cycle. Suspected reasons for discrepancies are discussed. The code for the newly presented fuzzy logic method is provided for the community to use.
Laura Bianco, Bianca Adler, Ludovic Bariteau, Irina V. Djalalova, Timothy Myers, Sergio Pezoa, David D. Turner, and James M. Wilczak
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3933–3948, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3933-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3933-2024, 2024
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The Tropospheric Remotely Observed Profiling via Optimal Estimation physical retrieval is used to retrieve temperature and humidity profiles from various combinations of passive and active remote sensing instruments, surface platforms, and numerical weather prediction models. The retrieved profiles are assessed against collocated radiosonde in non-cloudy conditions to assess the sensitivity of the retrievals to different input combinations. Case studies with cloudy conditions are also inspected.
Björn Linder, Peter Preusse, Qiuyu Chen, Ole Martin Christensen, Lukas Krasauskas, Linda Megner, Manfred Ern, and Jörg Gumbel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3829–3841, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3829-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3829-2024, 2024
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The Swedish research satellite MATS (Mesospheric Airglow/Aerosol Tomography and Spectroscopy) is designed to study atmospheric waves in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. These waves perturb the temperature field, and thus, by observing three-dimensional temperature fluctuations, their properties can be quantified. This pre-study uses synthetic MATS data generated from a general circulation model to investigate how well wave properties can be retrieved.
Gia Huan Pham, Shu-Chih Yang, Chih-Chien Chang, Shu-Ya Chen, and Cheng Yung Huang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3605–3623, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3605-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3605-2024, 2024
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This research examines the characteristics of low-level GNSS radio occultation (RO) refractivity bias over ocean and land and its dependency on the RO retrieval uncertainty, atmospheric temperature, and moisture. We propose methods for estimating the region-dependent refractivity bias. Our methods can be applied to calibrate the refractivity bias under different atmospheric conditions and thus improve the applications of the GNSS RO data in the deep troposphere.
Sebastiano Padovan, Axel Von Engeln, Saverio Paolella, Yago Andres, Chad R. Galley, Riccardo Notarpietro, Veronica Rivas Boscán, Francisco Sancho, Francisco Martin Alemany, Nicolas Morew, and Christian Marquardt
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-80, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-80, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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Radio Occultation (RO) measurements are an important contribution to numerical weather predictions and long-term climate studies. Using more than a hundred thousand occultations recorded by instruments onboard the Sentinel-6A and Cosmic-2 satellites, this work studies the effects of the clock data rate of the Global Navigation Satellite System on the RO data quality. GLONASS occultations benefit of high-rate clock data (1 second), GPS occultation have high quality already at 30 seconds.
Sanja Dmitrovic, Johnathan W. Hair, Brian L. Collister, Ewan Crosbie, Marta A. Fenn, Richard A. Ferrare, David B. Harper, Chris A. Hostetler, Yongxiang Hu, John A. Reagan, Claire E. Robinson, Shane T. Seaman, Taylor J. Shingler, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Holger Vömel, Xubin Zeng, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3515–3532, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3515-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3515-2024, 2024
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This study introduces and evaluates a new ocean surface wind speed product from the NASA Langley Research Center (LARC) airborne High-Spectral-Resolution Lidar – Generation 2 (HSRL-2) during the NASA ACTIVATE mission. We show that HSRL-2 surface wind speed data are accurate when compared to ground-truth dropsonde measurements. Therefore, the HSRL-2 instrument is able obtain accurate, high-resolution surface wind speed data in airborne field campaigns.
Laura M. Tomkins, Sandra E. Yuter, and Matthew A. Miller
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3377–3399, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3377-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3377-2024, 2024
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We have created a new method to better identify enhanced features in radar data from winter storms. Unlike the clear-cut features seen in warm-season storms, features in winter storms are often fuzzier with softer edges. Our technique is unique because it uses two adaptive thresholds that change based on the background radar values. It can identify both strong and subtle features in the radar data and takes into account uncertainties in the detection process.
Eileen Päschke and Carola Detring
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3187–3217, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3187-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3187-2024, 2024
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Little noise in radial velocity Doppler lidar measurements can contribute to large errors in retrieved turbulence variables. In order to distinguish between plausible and erroneous measurements we developed new filter techniques that work independently of the choice of a specific threshold for the signal-to-noise ratio. The performance of these techniques is discussed both by means of assessing the filter results and by comparing retrieved turbulence variables versus independent measurements.
Luuk D. van der Valk, Miriam Coenders-Gerrits, Rolf W. Hut, Aart Overeem, Bas Walraven, and Remko Uijlenhoet
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2811–2832, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2811-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2811-2024, 2024
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Microwave links, often part of mobile phone networks, can be used to measure rainfall along the link path by determining the signal loss caused by rainfall. We use high-frequency data of multiple microwave links to recreate commonly used sampling strategies. For time intervals up to 1 min, the influence of sampling strategies on estimated rainfall intensities is relatively little, while for intervals longer than 5–15 min, the sampling strategy can have significant influences on the estimates.
Martin Lainer, Killian P. Brennan, Alessandro Hering, Jérôme Kopp, Samuel Monhart, Daniel Wolfensberger, and Urs Germann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2539–2557, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2539-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2539-2024, 2024
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This study uses deep learning (the Mask R-CNN model) on drone-based photogrammetric data of hail on the ground to estimate hail size distributions (HSDs). Traditional hail sensors' limited areas complicate the full HSD retrieval. The HSD of a supercell event on 20 June 2021 is retrieved and contains > 18 000 hailstones. The HSD is compared to automatic hail sensor measurements and those of weather-radar-based MESHS. Investigations into ground hail melting are performed by five drone flights.
Andrea Camplani, Daniele Casella, Paolo Sanò, and Giulia Panegrossi
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2195–2217, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2195-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2195-2024, 2024
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The paper describes a new machine-learning-based snowfall retrieval algorithm for Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder observations developed to retrieve high-latitude snowfall events. The main novelty of the approach is the radiometric characterization of the background surface at the time of the overpass, which is ancillary to the retrieval process. The algorithm shows a unique capability to retrieve snowfall in the environmental conditions typical of high latitudes.
Lusheng Liang, Wenying Su, Sergio Sejas, Zachary Eitzen, and Norman G. Loeb
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2147–2163, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2147-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2147-2024, 2024
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This paper describes an updated process to obtain unfiltered radiation from CERES satellite instruments by incorporating the most recent developments in radiative transfer modeling and ancillary input datasets (e.g., realistic representation of land surface radiation and climatology of surface temperatures and aerosols) during the past 20 years. The resulting global mean of instantaneous SW and LW fluxes is changed by less than 0.5 W m−2 with regional differences as large as 2.0 W m−2.
Maximilian Graf, Andreas Wagner, Julius Polz, Llorenç Lliso, José Alberto Lahuerta, Harald Kunstmann, and Christian Chwala
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2165–2182, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2165-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2165-2024, 2024
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Commercial microwave links (CMLs) can be used for rainfall retrieval. The detection of rainy periods in their attenuation time series is a crucial processing step. We investigate the usage of rainfall data from MSG SEVIRI for this task, compare this approach with existing methods, and introduce a novel combined approach. The results show certain advantages for SEVIRI-based methods, particularly for CMLs where existing methods perform poorly. Our novel combination yields the best performance.
Lieuwe G. Tilstra, Martin de Graaf, Victor J. H. Trees, Pavel Litvinov, Oleg Dubovik, and Piet Stammes
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2235–2256, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2235-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2235-2024, 2024
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This paper introduces a new surface albedo climatology of directionally dependent Lambertian-equivalent reflectivity (DLER) observed by TROPOMI on the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite. The database contains monthly fields of DLER for 21 wavelength bands at a relatively high spatial resolution of 0.125 by 0.125 degrees. The anisotropy of the surface reflection is handled by parameterisation of the viewing angle dependence.
Bing Cao and Alan Z. Liu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2123–2146, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2123-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2123-2024, 2024
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A narrow-band sodium lidar measures atmospheric waves but is limited to vertical variations. We propose to utilize phase shifts among observations from different laser beams to derive horizontal wave information. Two gravity wave packets were identified by this method. Both waves were found to interact with thin evanescent layers, partially reflected, but transmitted energy to higher altitudes. The method can detect more medium-frequency gravity waves for similar lidar systems worldwide.
Xiaozhen Xiong, Xu Liu, Robert Spurr, Ming Zhao, Qiguang Yang, Wan Wu, and Liqiao Lei
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1965–1978, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1965-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1965-2024, 2024
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The term “hotspot” refers to the sharp increase in reflectance occurring when incident (solar) and reflected (viewing) directions coincide in the backscatter direction. The accurate simulation of hotspot directional signatures is important for many remote sensing applications, but current models typically require large values of computations to represent the hotspot accurately. This paper provides a numerically improved hotspot BRDF model that converges much faster and is used in VLIDORT.
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Short summary
The Aeolus satellite measures global height resolved profiles of wind along a certain line-of-sight. However, for atmospheric dynamics research, wind measurements along the three cardinal axes are most useful. This paper presents methods to convert the measurements into zonal and meridional wind components. By combining the measurements during ascending and descending orbits, we achieve good derivation of zonal wind (equatorward of 80° latitude) and meridional wind (poleward of 70° latitude).
The Aeolus satellite measures global height resolved profiles of wind along a certain...
