Statistical analysis of observations of polar stratospheric clouds with a lidar in Kiruna, northern Sweden

Voelger, Peter; Dalin, Peter

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5551-2023

Articles | Volume 23, issue 9

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5551-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5551-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 23, issue 9

Research article

|

17 May 2023

Research article |

| 17 May 2023

Statistical analysis of observations of polar stratospheric clouds with a lidar in Kiruna, northern Sweden

Peter Voelger and Peter Dalin

Data sets

ERA5 hourly data on pressure levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach, B. Bell, P. Berrisford, G. Biavati, A. Horányi, J. Muñoz Sabater, J. Nicolas, C. Peubey, R. Radu, I. Rozum, D. Schepers, A. Simmons, C. Soci, D. Dee, and J.-N. Thépaut https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.bd0915c6

Short summary

We examined 11 winters of lidar measurements of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs), performed in Kiruna, northern Sweden. We discriminated cases with and without mountain lee waves present. We found that under mountain-lee-wave conditions PSCs are on average at higher altitudes and are more likely to contain ice. Without such waves present, most PSCs consist of nitric acid.