Atmospheric turbulence spectrum in high resolution mode detected by a High Power-Aperture sodium Lidar over Yanqing, Beijing (40.47°N, 115.97°E)

Abstract: With the support of the Meridian Project of China, an integrated two-wavelength and three-channel lidar system was completed for atmospheric detection in Yanqing, Beijing. This lidar system emitted a 589 nm laser beam for detecting the 80–110 km sodium atomic layer. A 532 nm laser system was used to detect the 30–80 km atmospheric temperature and density and also to provide the atmosphere aerosol information from the ground to a height of 30 km. Because all of the technique details were carefully designed, this lidar obtained a very good signal and achieved the full-scale detection of the atmosphere from near-ground to a height of 110 km. With the conventional mode (3 minutes, 100 meters), the atmospheric 532 nm Rayleigh detecting channel could reach a height of 80 km, and the 589 nm channel photo counting peak could reach 37000. This specification actually reached the high power-aperture sodium lidar standard in advance, which caused the high-resolution detection mode (15 m, 6.7 s) to be realized. For the high-resolution detecting mode of our Yanqing Lidar, observations of the spectrum of a gravity wave in the turbulence region were given according to the advantages of the high signal/noise ratio. Additionally, the properties of the turbulence spectrum and their variations were first obtained in the northern hemisphere over China. The observed gravity wave turbulence spectra well fitted with the theoretical prediction. These results achieved new field detections, which will lead us to further discover the nature and essence of a gravity wave and deeply study the behavior of upper atmosphere circulation on a large scale.