RESEARCH ASSOCIATES: Dr. Weilin Pan, Dr. Andrew Gerrard, Dr. Timothy Kane

MAILING ADDRESS: SRI International, Center for Geospace Studies, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025

TELEPHONE NUMBER: 650-859-3557

FAX NUMBER: 650-322-2318

E-MAIL ADDRESS: thayer@sri.com

WEB SITE: http:// isr.sri.com/instruments/data/arclite/arclite.html

DATE: July 17, 2003

LIDAR LOCATION (CITY, COUNTRY, LAT., LONG.):
Sondrestrom, Greenland (67.0N, 309.1E)

SITE ELEVATION: 180 meters

PARAMETER(S) OR CONSTITUENT(S) MEASURED:
relative density
temperature
gravity waves
polar stratospheric and mesospheric clouds

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:
Polar middle atmosphere thermal structure, gravity wave propagation, and mesospheric clouds
SPONSOR: NSF

MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUE:
elastic backscatter for molecular and aerosol detection
depolarization measurements of mesospheric clouds

MEASUREMENT RANGE: 10 – 90 km

VERTICAL RESOLUTION: 48 meter

FREQ. OF MEASUREMENT (TYPICALLY): 5-10 hours per week, year round

MEASUREMENT TIMES (TYPICALLY): one-minute resolution, day or night

LASER TYPE AND WAVELENGTH (s): Spectra-Physics GCR-4 Nd:YAG operating at 532 nm

LASER ENERGY/PULSE: 510 mJ/pulse

PULSE REPETITION RATE: 30 Hz

RECEIVER SIZE AND CONFIGURATION: 92-cm diameter, Newtonian

DETECTORS USED: Thorn EMI PMT

SIGNAL PROCESSING: photon counting

ANALOG-T0-DIGITAL CONVERTER: SR430 multichannel scaler

COMPUTER: Pentium III PC-500 MHz

PUBLICATIONS (5 recent and/or significant):

Thayer, J.P., N.B. Nielsen, and J. Jacobsen, "Noctilucent Cloud Observations over Greenland by a Rayleigh Lidar," Geophys. Res. Lett. Vol. 22, No. 21, pp. 2961-2964, 1995.

Thayer, J.P., N.B. Nielsen, R. Warren, C.J. Heinselman, and J. Sohn, "Rayleigh lidar system for middle atmosphere research in the arctic," Opt. Eng.Vol. 36, No. 7, pp. 2045-2061, 1997.

Gerrard, A.J., T.J. Kane, J.P. Thayer, "Year-round temperature and wave measurements of the Arctic middle atmosphere for 1995-1998," Geophysical Monograph 123, Atmospheric Science across the Stratopause, AGU, 2000.

Thayer, J. P., G. E. Thomas, and F.-J. Lübken, Foreword: Layered phenomena in the mesopause region, J. Geophys. Res., 108(D8), 8434, doi:10.1029/2002JD003295, 2003.

Thayer, J. P., M. Rapp, A. J. Gerrard, E. Gudmundsson, and T. J. Kane, Gravity-wave influences on Arctic mesospheric clouds as determined by a Rayleigh lidar at Sondrestrom, Greenland, J. Geophys. Res., 108(D8), 8449, doi:10.1029/2002JD002363, 2003.

COMMENTS: This Rayleigh lidar has been in routine operation since 1994.