Abstract
We present a novel method of estimating temperatures near the mesopause region using meteor radar observations. The method utilizes the linear relationship between the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the meteor height distribution and the temperature at the meteor peak height. Once the proportionality constant of the linear relationship is determined from independent temperature measurements performed over a specific period of time by the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument on board the Aura satellite, the temperature can be estimated continuously according to the measurements of the FWHM alone without additional information. The temperatures estimated from the FWHM are consistent with the MLS temperatures throughout the study period within a margin of 3.0%. Although previous methods are based on temperature gradient or pressure assumptions, the new method does not require such assumptions, which allows us to estimate the temperature at approximately 90 km with better precision.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 10,580-10,585 |
| Journal | Geophysical Research Letters |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue number | 20 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2016 Oct 28 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study was supported by the grant PE16090 from the Korea Polar Research Institute. The authors would like to thank the Aura MLS team for providing the geopotential height and temperature data. The Aura/MLS data used in this study are available from http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/Aura/data-holdings/MLS.
Publisher Copyright:
©2016. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Geophysics
- Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)