Comparison of lower stratosphere wind observations from the USTC's
Rayleigh Doppler lidar and the ESA's satellite mission Aeolus
Abstract
Since the first space-borne Doppler wind lidar, Aeolus, was launched,
global wind field observations from space have been possible. Several
ground- and air-based validations followed, although most of these
comparisons remained below 10 km in the troposphere, with rare
validation work for the stratosphere. The Rayleigh Doppler lidar
developed by the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC)
was deployed in Xinjiang, China in 2017. It can observe wind speed and
temperature in the stratosphere and mesosphere. By setting two
geographical ranges centered on the USTC lidar, the Aeolus Rayleigh
winds within these ranges can be compared with ground-based lidar wind
data. Furthermore, after eliminating the effect of particulate
backscatter on the USTC lidar, the lower limit of the detection range
was extended to 10 km to obtain more samples. The mean biases between
the Aeolus winds and the USTC lidar winds were 1.05±5.98 (-0.35±4.78)
m/s, 1.80±6.30 (-1.88±4.97) m/s, and 0.17±5.45 (0.51±4.44) m/s for all
data, ascending orbits, and descending orbits, respectively, in a large
(small) geographical range. The results for descending orbits have a
higher degree of consistency with those for ascending orbits, and the
farther the distance between Aeolus observation swaths and the USTC
lidar, the greater the bias. Overall, the Aeolus winds are consistent
with the USTC lidar winds in the stratosphere.