STRATOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE-MEASUREMENTS BY 2 COLLOCATED NDSC LIDARS DURING UARS VALIDATION CAMPAIGN

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) mobile lidar system was de ployed at the Observatoire de Haute Provence (OHP), during an Upper At mosphere Research Satellite (UARS)/Network for Detection of Stratosphe ric Change (NDSC) correlative measurement campaign (July-August 1992). The objective of this campaign was twofold: to intercompare two indep endent lidars and to provide ground-based UARS correlative ozone and t emperature validation measurements. This paper, for the first time, pr esents a coincident temperature intercomparison between two independen tly operating temperature lidar systems of similar capabilities. Syste ms and retrieval algorithms have been described and discussed in terms of error sources. The comparison of the two analysis have shown very similar results up to the upper mesosphere. The statistical mean diffe rences of 0.5 K in the stratosphere and about 2 K in the mesosphere su ggests insignificant bias throughout except below 35 km, where one of the data sets is contaminated by the volcanic aerosols from the erupti on of Mount Pinatubo. Profiles of the root-mean-square (RMS) of the di fferences are in good agreement with random error estimates, except ar ound 35-40 km where RMS is larger. These measurements can be used as t he ground reference for UARS temperature validation. However, the spat ial-temporal coincidence between satellite and lidar needs to be caref ully considered for meaningful validation.