Mesospheric temperatures and sodium properties measured with the ALOMAR Na lidar compared with WACCM

Abstract

We present a comparison of the temperature and sodium layer properties observed by the ALOMAR Na lidar (69.3°N, 16.0°E) and simulated by the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with specified dynamics and implemented sodium chemistry (WACCM-Na). To constrain the meteorological fields below 60 km, we use MERRA and GEOS-5. For the years 2008 to 2012, we analyse daily averages of temperature between 80.5 km and 101.5 km altitude, and of the Na layer's peak height, peak density, and centroid height. Both model runs are able to reproduce the pronounced seasonal cycle of Na number density and temperature at high latitudes very well. Especially between 86.5 km and 95.5 km, the measured and simulated temperatures agree very well. The lidar measurements confirm the model predictions that the January 2012 stratospheric warming led to large variation in temperature and Na density. The correlation coefficient between Na number density and temperature is positive for almost all altitudes in the lidar data, but not in the simulations. On average, the centroid height and peak height measured by lidar is about 2 km–3 km higher than simulated by WACCM-Na.