The airglow layer emission altitude cannot be determined unambiguously from temperature comparison with lidars
Source at https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6691-2018 I investigate the nightly mean emission height and width of the OH*(3–1) layer by comparing nightly mean temperatures measured by the ground-based spectrometer GRIPS 9 and the Na lidar at ALOMAR. The data set contains 42 coincident measurements take...
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ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/14690 2023-05-15T17:43:36+02:00 The airglow layer emission altitude cannot be determined unambiguously from temperature comparison with lidars Dunker, Tim 2018 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/14690 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6691-2018 eng eng European Geosciences Union (EGU) Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Norges forskningsråd: 216870 Norges forskningsråd: 208020 Dunker T. (2018) The airglow layer emission altitude cannot be determined unambiguously from temperature comparison with lidars. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 18 (9), 6691-6697. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6691-2018 doi:10.5194/acp-18-6691-2018 1680-7316 1680-7324 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/14690 openAccess VDP::Matematikk og naturvitenskap: 400::Fysikk: 430 VDP::Mathematics and natural scienses: 400::Physics: 430 Journal article Peer reviewed Tidsskriftartikkel 2018 ftunivtroemsoe https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6691-2018 2021-06-25T17:56:14Z Source at https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6691-2018 I investigate the nightly mean emission height and width of the OH*(3–1) layer by comparing nightly mean temperatures measured by the ground-based spectrometer GRIPS 9 and the Na lidar at ALOMAR. The data set contains 42 coincident measurements taken between November 2010 and February 2014, when GRIPS 9 was in operation at the ALOMAR observatory (69.3° N, 16.0° E) in northern Norway. To closely resemble the mean temperature measured by GRIPS 9, I weight each nightly mean temperature profile measured by the lidar using Gaussian distributions with 40 different centre altitudes and 40 different full widths at half maximum. In principle, one can thus determine the altitude and width of an airglow layer by finding the minimum temperature difference between the two instruments. On most nights, several combinations of centre altitude and width yield a temperature difference of ±2 K. The generally assumed altitude of 87 km and width of 8 km is never an unambiguous, good solution for any of the measurements. Even for a fixed width of ∼8.4 km, one can sometimes find several centre altitudes that yield equally good temperature agreement. Weighted temperatures measured by lidar are not suitable to unambiguously determine the emission height and width of an airglow layer. However, when actual altitude and width data are lacking, a comparison with lidars can provide an estimate of how representative a measured rotational temperature is of an assumed altitude and width. I found the rotational temperature to represent the temperature at the commonly assumed altitude of 87.4 km and width of 8.4 km to within ±16 K, on average. This is not a measurement uncertainty. Article in Journal/Newspaper Northern Norway University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive Alomar ENVELOPE(-67.083,-67.083,-68.133,-68.133) Norway Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 18 9 6691 6697 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive |
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ftunivtroemsoe |
language |
English |
topic |
VDP::Matematikk og naturvitenskap: 400::Fysikk: 430 VDP::Mathematics and natural scienses: 400::Physics: 430 |
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VDP::Matematikk og naturvitenskap: 400::Fysikk: 430 VDP::Mathematics and natural scienses: 400::Physics: 430 Dunker, Tim The airglow layer emission altitude cannot be determined unambiguously from temperature comparison with lidars |
topic_facet |
VDP::Matematikk og naturvitenskap: 400::Fysikk: 430 VDP::Mathematics and natural scienses: 400::Physics: 430 |
description |
Source at https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6691-2018 I investigate the nightly mean emission height and width of the OH*(3–1) layer by comparing nightly mean temperatures measured by the ground-based spectrometer GRIPS 9 and the Na lidar at ALOMAR. The data set contains 42 coincident measurements taken between November 2010 and February 2014, when GRIPS 9 was in operation at the ALOMAR observatory (69.3° N, 16.0° E) in northern Norway. To closely resemble the mean temperature measured by GRIPS 9, I weight each nightly mean temperature profile measured by the lidar using Gaussian distributions with 40 different centre altitudes and 40 different full widths at half maximum. In principle, one can thus determine the altitude and width of an airglow layer by finding the minimum temperature difference between the two instruments. On most nights, several combinations of centre altitude and width yield a temperature difference of ±2 K. The generally assumed altitude of 87 km and width of 8 km is never an unambiguous, good solution for any of the measurements. Even for a fixed width of ∼8.4 km, one can sometimes find several centre altitudes that yield equally good temperature agreement. Weighted temperatures measured by lidar are not suitable to unambiguously determine the emission height and width of an airglow layer. However, when actual altitude and width data are lacking, a comparison with lidars can provide an estimate of how representative a measured rotational temperature is of an assumed altitude and width. I found the rotational temperature to represent the temperature at the commonly assumed altitude of 87.4 km and width of 8.4 km to within ±16 K, on average. This is not a measurement uncertainty. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Dunker, Tim |
author_facet |
Dunker, Tim |
author_sort |
Dunker, Tim |
title |
The airglow layer emission altitude cannot be determined unambiguously from temperature comparison with lidars |
title_short |
The airglow layer emission altitude cannot be determined unambiguously from temperature comparison with lidars |
title_full |
The airglow layer emission altitude cannot be determined unambiguously from temperature comparison with lidars |
title_fullStr |
The airglow layer emission altitude cannot be determined unambiguously from temperature comparison with lidars |
title_full_unstemmed |
The airglow layer emission altitude cannot be determined unambiguously from temperature comparison with lidars |
title_sort |
airglow layer emission altitude cannot be determined unambiguously from temperature comparison with lidars |
publisher |
European Geosciences Union (EGU) |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/14690 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6691-2018 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-67.083,-67.083,-68.133,-68.133) |
geographic |
Alomar Norway |
geographic_facet |
Alomar Norway |
genre |
Northern Norway |
genre_facet |
Northern Norway |
op_relation |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Norges forskningsråd: 216870 Norges forskningsråd: 208020 Dunker T. (2018) The airglow layer emission altitude cannot be determined unambiguously from temperature comparison with lidars. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 18 (9), 6691-6697. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6691-2018 doi:10.5194/acp-18-6691-2018 1680-7316 1680-7324 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/14690 |
op_rights |
openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6691-2018 |
container_title |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
6691 |
op_container_end_page |
6697 |
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1766145713624842240 |