Studying atmospheric dynamics with lasers in remote places

Abstract

Light detection and Ranging (LiDAR) is so far the only active remote sensing technology which allows almost continuous profiling of the atmosphere from ground to space. LiDAR systems provide measurements of key variables related to atmospheric dynamics such as air density, temperature and wind speed. As numerical weather prediction and climate models are extended to higher altitudes, observations in the middle atmosphere (approximately 15-90 km altitude) have become increasingly important for process studies and the validation of these models, and in the last decade a new generation of automatic LiDAR systems has been developed and the instruments deployed to locations around the world. Driven by the desire to probe regions of particular scientific interest, such as hotspots of atmospheric gravity waves, the instruments are often set up in remote places that could be described as ``the world's end": from a small town above the Arctic Circle in Finland, the southern tip of the Andes Mountains in South America, to South Pole Station high on the Antarctic Plateau. This presentation highlights these places and the scientific results that were obtained by observing atmospheric gravity waves using LiDAR instruments operated on the ground, on aircrafts and on long duration stratospheric balloons.