High-resolution Beijing mesosphere–stratosphere–troposphere (MST) radar detection of tropopause structure and variability over Xianghe (39.75°&thinsp;N, 116.96°&thinsp;E), China

Chen, Feilong; Chen, Gang; Tian, Yufang; Zhang, Shaodong; Huang, Kaiming; Wu, Chen; Zhang, Weifan

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-37-631-2019

Articles | Volume 37, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-37-631-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-37-631-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 37, issue 4

Regular paper

|

24 Jul 2019

Regular paper |

| 24 Jul 2019

High-resolution Beijing mesosphere–stratosphere–troposphere (MST) radar detection of tropopause structure and variability over Xianghe (39.75° N, 116.96° E), China

Feilong Chen, Gang Chen, Yufang Tian, Shaodong Zhang, Kaiming Huang, Chen Wu, and Weifan Zhang

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Final revised paper (published on 24 Jul 2019)
Preprint (discussion started on 23 Jan 2019)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'High-resolution Beijing MST radar detection of tropopause structure and variability over Xianghe (39.75N, 116.96E), China', Anonymous Referee #1, 21 Feb 2019
- AC1: 'Authors' responses to the Rreferee #1', Feilong Chen, 24 Feb 2019
- AC2: 'Revised Manuscript_according to comments of Reviewer #1', Feilong Chen, 24 Feb 2019
- AC3: 'Revised Manuscript with tracked changes_according to comments of Reviewer #1', Feilong Chen, 24 Feb 2019
RC2: 'Referee Comments for the manuscript angeo-2018-137', Anonymous Referee #2, 18 Mar 2019
- AC4: 'Authors' responses to the Rreferee #2', Feilong Chen, 18 Mar 2019
- AC5: 'Revised Manuscript_according to comments of Reviewer #2', Feilong Chen, 18 Mar 2019
- AC6: 'Revised Manuscript with tracked changes_according to comments of Reviewer #2', Feilong Chen, 18 Mar 2019

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by editor and referees) (26 Mar 2019) by Andrew J. Kavanagh

AR by Feilong Chen on behalf of the Authors (28 Mar 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (29 Mar 2019) by Andrew J. Kavanagh

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (09 May 2019)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Second review of 'High-resolution Beijing MST radar detection of tropopause structure and variability over Xianghe (39.75° N, 116.96° E), China', by Chen et al.

Note that in my comments below, I refer to the manuscript which the authors have incorporate both Reviewers' comments from the first review round.

I thank the authors for considering and addressing my comments. It is now clear why Chen et al. have had to reject consideration of tropopauses with altitudes above 16km, whether or not these are the first or second tropopause. This is a pity, but clearly a limitation of the radar system's power and capabilities.

As such, once the authors have implemented the following minor points, I would find this manuscript acceptable for publication.

1) In your abstract, you need to clearly state that you only consider the lower tropopause altitudes. This is not mentioned at all at present but is a very important point to include in the abstract. I suggest words on line 19 such as: "We only consider tropopause altitudes below 16km in this study because of limitations with the radar system", or words to this effect.

2) Line 214 describing Figure 5, I think a better way to say this is: 'Higher probabilities of large tropopause sharpness values occur when the RT-LRT difference is less than 0.5km"

3) Line 248: I can't see from Figure 7 that the 'radar power points' show less dispers[ion]. Please remove the words 'and radar power points'

4) Figure 3. The 'cyan asterisks' which indicate the LRT location are practically invisible because you are plotting a light blue color on to a dark blue color. I suggest you plot these asterisks in white, gold, or bright red. That should make them visible.

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RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (14 May 2019)

ED: Publish subject to revisions (further review by editor and referees) (30 May 2019) by Andrew J. Kavanagh

AR by Feilong Chen on behalf of the Authors (21 Jun 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (01 Jul 2019) by Andrew J. Kavanagh

AR by Feilong Chen on behalf of the Authors (06 Jul 2019) Author's response Manuscript

Short summary

Using the Beijing MST radar echo-power observations collected during the period November 2011–May 2017, the structure and variability of the tropopause over Xianghe, China (39.75° N, 116.96° E), was presented. Our comparison results showed a good agreement between the radar and thermal tropopauses during all seasons. In contrast, the consistency between the radar and dynamical tropopauses is poor during summer. Diurnal oscillation in tropopause height is commonly observed during all seasons.