Daytime measurements of atmospheric temperature profiles (2-15 km) by lidar utilizing Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering

In this Letter, we report on a novel method for measuring atmospheric temperature profiles by lidar during daytime for heights of 2–15.3 km, with a vertical resolution of 0.3–2.2 km, using Rayleigh–Brillouin scattering. The measurements are performed by scanning a laser (λ=355 nm) over a 12 GHz range and using a Fabry–Pérot interferometer as discriminator. The temperature is derived by using a new analytical line shape model assuming standard atmospheric pressure conditions. Two exemplary temperature profiles resulting from measurements over 14 and 27 min are shown. A comparison with radiosonde temperature measurements shows reasonable agreement. In cloud-free conditions, the temperature difference reaches up to 5 K within the boundary layer, and is smaller than 2.5 K above. The statistical error of the derived temperatures is between 0.15 and 1.5 K