A new method to derive middle atmospheric temperature profiles using a combination of Rayleigh lidar and O₂ airglow temperatures measurements

Abstract. The vertical temperature profiles in a typical Rayleigh lidar system depends on the backscatter photon counts and the CIRA-86 model inputs. For the first time, we show that, by making simultaneous measurements of Rayleigh lidar and upper mesospheric O₂ temperatures, the lidar capability can be enhanced to obtain mesospheric temperature profile up to about 95 km altitudes. The obtained results are compared with instantaneous space-borne SABER measurements for a validation.