Mobile Rayleigh Doppler lidar for wind and temperature measurements in the stratosphere and lower mesosphere

A mobile Rayleigh Doppler lidar based on the molecular double-edge technique is developed for measuring wind velocity in the middle atmosphere up to 60 km. The lidar uses three lasers with a mean power of 17.5 W at 355 nm each and three 1 m diameter telescopes to receive the backscattered echo: one points to zenith for vertical wind component and temperature measurement; the two others pointing toward east and north are titled at 30° from the zenith for zonal and meridional wind component, respectively. The Doppler shift of the backscattered echo is measured by inter-comparing the signal detected through each of the double-edge channels of a triple Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) tuned to either side of the emitted laser line. The third channel of FPI is used for frequency locking and a locking accuracy of 1.8 MHz RMS (root-mean-square) at 355 nm over 2 hours is realized, corresponding to a systematic error of 0.32 m/s. In this paper, we present detailed technical evolutions on system calibration. To validate the performance of the lidar, comparison experiments was carried out in December 2013, which showed good agreement with radiosondes but notable biases with ECMWF (European Centre for Medium range Weather Forecasts) in the height range of overlapping data. Wind observation over one month performed in Delhi (37.371° N, 97.374° E), northwest of China, demonstrated the stability and robustness of the system.