EVALUATION OF OPTIMIZATION OF LIDAR TEMPERATURE ANALYSIS ALGORITHMS USING SIMULATED DATA

Temperature lidar data have been simulated in order to test the Jet Pr opulsion Laboratory (JPL) SO3ANL version 3.2 and Service d'Aeronomie d u Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS/SA) TEMPER versio n 2.1 lidar temperature analysis software. Assuming known atmospheric temperature-pressure-density profiles, theoretical raw-photons lidar p rofiles have been calculated using the actual characteristics of two J PL lidar instruments, located at the Table Mountain Facility (TMF) in California and the Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO), Hawaii, and the CNRS/S A Rayleigh lidar, located at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence (OHP) in France. The simulations were performed for an initial climatologica l profile taken from the CIRA-86 model and for various profiles derive d from this model including realistic atmospheric disturbances. Compar isons between the original and retrieved temperature profiles revealed errors of several kelvins for both the JPL and the CNRS/SA programs. By varying parameters in the simulation, it was possible to determine both the source and the magnitude of these errors. Once identified, th e errors were corrected, and the analysis programs were optimized, lea ding to new operational versions of these programs (SO3ANL version 3.6 and TEMPER version 2.2), An accurate accounting of the temperature li dar analysis errors, before and after this work, is presented.