Articles | Volume 21, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6079-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6079-2021
Research article
 | 
22 Apr 2021
Research article |  | 22 Apr 2021

Using a network of temperature lidars to identify temperature biases in the upper stratosphere in ECMWF reanalyses

Graeme Marlton, Andrew Charlton-Perez, Giles Harrison, Inna Polichtchouk, Alain Hauchecorne, Philippe Keckhut, Robin Wing, Thierry Leblanc, and Wolfgang Steinbrecht

Data sets

MLS/Aura Level 2 Temperature V005 M. Schwartz, N. Livesey, and W. Read https://doi.org/10.5067/Aura/MLS/DATA2520

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Short summary
A network of Rayleigh lidars have been used to infer the upper-stratosphere temperature bias in ECMWF ERA-5 and ERA-Interim reanalyses during 1990–2017. Results show that ERA-Interim exhibits a cold bias of −3 to −4 K between 10 and 1 hPa. Comparisons with ERA-5 found a smaller bias of 1 K which varies between cold and warm between 10 and 3 hPa, indicating a good thermal representation of the atmosphere to 3 hPa. These biases must be accounted for in stratospheric studies using these reanalyses.
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