The Lidar-In-Space-Technology-Experiment (LITE) was flown on STS-64 in September 1994. LITE employed a Nd:YAG laser operating at 1064, 532, and 355 nm to study the Earth's lower atmosphere. In this paper we investigate the nighttime stratospheric aerosol and temperature measurements derived from the 532 and 355 nm channels. The observations are compared with lidar observations obtained at Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico and Starfire Optical Range, NM and with balloonsondes launched from the San Juan and Albuquerque airports. The backscatter ratios derived from the LITE and Arecibo data between 15 and 30 km differ by less than 5%. The Angstrom coefficients of the stratospheric aerosols derived from the 532 and 355 nm LITE channels exhibited only slight variation with altitude. The mean value between 15 and 30 km derived from 3 different orbital segments at about 20N and 35N was 1.7. The mean standard deviation was approximately 0.3. Temperature profiles were derived from the LITE data by correcting the 355 nm channel for aerosol scattering using the 532 nm signal and an assumed Angstrom coefficient. The RMS differences between the corrected profiles and the balloonsonde data were as low as 2K in the 15 to 30 km height range. The results were not particularly sensitive to the choice of the Angstrom coefficient and suggest that accurate temperature profiles may be derived from the LITE data in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere provided the aerosol loading is light.
Figure 8 a) RMS temperature difference between the balloonsonde launched from San Juan and the corrected 355 nm LITE channel plotted versus Angstrom coefficient. b) Balloonsonde and corrected LITE temperature profiles. The 355 nm LITE channel was compensated for aerosol scattering using a value of x=1.5 for the Angstrom coefficient.
Figure 11 a) Contour plot of corrected LITE temperature as a function of altitude and latitude. An Angstrom coefficient of 1.7 was used to compensate for aerosol scattering. b) Contour plot of temperature deviations from the average temperature as a function of altitude and latitude.
