Lidar measurements of thermal structure

Rayleigh backscatter observations at 532 nm and 355 nm of relative atmospheric density above Aberystwyth on a total of 93 nights between Dec. 1982 and Feb. 1985 were used to derive the height variation of temperature in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere. Preliminary results for height up to about 25 km were also obtained from observations of Raman backscattering from nitrogen molecules. Comparisons were carried out for stratospheric heights with satellite borne measurements; good agreement was found between equivalent black body temperatures derived from the lidar observations and those obtained from nadir measurements in three channels of the stratosphere sounder units on NOAA satellites; the lidar based atmospheric temperatures have shown general agreement with but a greater degree of structure than the limb sounding measurements obtained using the SAMS experiment on the NOAA-7 satellite. In summer, stratospheric and mesospheric temperatures showed a smooth height variation similar to that of the CIRA model atmosphere. In contrast, the winter data showed a great variability with height, and marked temperature changes both from night to night and within a given night

Observations of stratospheric aerosols associated with the El Chichon eruption

Lidar observations of aerosols were carried out at Aberystwyth between Nov. 1982 and Dec. 1985 using a frequency doubled and frequency tripled Nd/Yag laser and a receiver incorporating a 1 m diameter in a Newtonian telescope configuration. In analyses of the experimental data attention is paid to the magnitude of the coefficient relating extinction and backscatter, the choice being related to the possible presence of aerosols in the upper troposphere and the atmospheric densities employed in the normalisation procedure. The aerosol loading showed marked day to day changes in early months and an overall decay was apparent only after April 1983, this decay being consistent with an e sup -1 time of about 7 months. The general decay was accompanied by a lowering of the layer but layers of aerosols were shown intermittently at heights above the main layer in winter months. The height variations of photon counts corrected for range, or of aerosol backscatter ratio, showed clear signatures of the tropopause. A strong correlation was found between the heights of the tropopause identified from the lidar measurements and from radiosonde-borne temperature measurements. A notable feature of the observations is the appearance of very sharp height gradients of backscatter ratio which seem to be produced by differential advection

Stratospheric aerosol measurements by dual polarisation lidar

International audienceWe present measurements of stratospheric aerosol made at Aberystwyth, UK (52.4° N, 4.06° W) during periods of background aerosol conditions. The measurements were made with a lidar system based on a 532 nm laser and two polarisation channels in the receiver. When stratospheric aerosol amounts are very small, as at present, this method is, potentially, free of a number of systematic errors that bedevil more commonly-used methods. The method rests on the assumption that the aerosol consists of spherical droplets which do not depolarise the lidar signal, which is valid under most conditions. Maximum lidar ratios in background aerosol of 1.03?1.06 were measured during the period 2001?2004, with integrated backscatter in the range 2?7×10?5sr?1. In January 2003, depolarising aerosol was measured, which invalidated the dual-polarisation measurements. On 10?11 January, the depolarising aerosol was clearly a polar stratospheric cloud (the first lidar observations of such clouds in the British Isles) but the aerosol observed on 7?8 January was too low in altitude and too warm to be a PSC

The average specific forced radiation wave impedance of a finite rectangular panel

The average specific forced radiation wave impedance of a finite rectangular panel is of importance for the prediction of both sound insulation and sound absorption. In 1982, Thomasson published numerical calculations of the average specific forced radiation wave impedance of a square of side length 2e for wave number k in half octave steps of ke from 0.25 to 64. Thomasson's calculations were for the case when the forced bending wave number kb was less than or equal to k. Thomasson also published approximate formulas for values of ke above and below the published results. This paper combines Thomasson's high and low frequency formulas and compares this combined formula with Thomasson's numerical calculations. The real part of the approximate formula is between 0.7 dB higher and -1 dB lower than the numerical calculations. The imaginary part of the approximate formula is between 2.3 dB higher and -2.6 dB lower than the numerical calculations. This paper also gives approximate formulas for the case when kb is greater than or equal to k. The differences are between 0.8 and -1.2 dB for the imaginary part and between 6.2 and -2.4 dB for the real part

The acoustic radiation impedance of a rectangular panel

This paper extends the definition of the one sided radiation impedance of a panel mounted in an infinite rigid baffle which was previously used by the authors so that it can be applied to all transverse velocity wave types on the panel rather than just to the possibly forced travelling plane transverse velocity waves considered previously by the authors. For the case of travelling plane waves on a rectangular panel with anechoic edge conditions, and for the case of standing waves on a rectangular panel with simply supported edge conditions, the equations resulting from one of the standard reductions from quadruple to double integrals are given. These double integral equations can be reduced to single integral equations, but the versions of these equations given in the literature did not always converge when used with adaptive integral routines and were sometimes slower than the double integral versions. This is because the terms in the integrands in the existing equations have singularities. Although these singularities cancel, they caused problems for the adaptive integral routines. This paper rewrites these equations in a form which removes the singularities and enables the integrals in these equations to be evaluated with adaptive integral routines. Approximate equations for the azimuthally averaged one sided radiation impedance of a rectangular panel mounted in an infinite baffle are given for all the cases considered in this paper and the values produced by these equations are compared with numerical calculations

Approximate equations for the radiation impedance of a rectangular panel

The authors have previously published approximate formulae for the average one sided specific radiation wave impedance of a finite rectangular panel mounted in a rigid infinite baffle. The panel's transverse vibration was due to a (possibly forced) two dimensional bending plane wave propagating in the panel without reflection at the edges of the panel. The average was over all the surface area of the panel and over all possible azimuthal angles of propagation direction. The radiation from waves propagating in different directions was assumed to be uncorrelated. These approximate formulae were derived from the 1982 research of Thomasson whose approximate formulae only covered the high and low frequency regions and not the mid frequency region. This paper presents more accurate versions of some of the approximate formulae. When the bending wave number is larger than the wave number of sound, the real part of the impedance is smaller than that for the case studied by Maidanik and Leppington. This is because correlated reflections are not included the case analyzed in this paper. When the bending wave number is smaller than or equals the wave number of sound, the real part of the impedance is the same for both cases

Approximate formulae for the average one sided specific radiation wave impedance of a finite rectangular panel

The authors have previously published approximate formulae for the average one sided specific radiation wave impedance of a finite rectangular panel mounted in a rigid infinite baffle. The panel's transverse vibration was due to a (possibly forced) two dimensional bending plane wave propagating in the panel without reflection at the edges of the panel. The average was over all the surface area of the panel and over all possible azimuthal angles of propagation direction. The radiation from waves propagating in different directions was assumed to be uncorrelated. These approximate formulae were derived from the 1982 research of Thomasson whose approximate formulae only covered the high and low frequency regions and not the mid frequency region. This paper presents more accurate versions of some of the approximate formulae. When the bending wave number is larger than the wave number of sound, the real part of the impedance is smaller than that for the case studied by Maidanik and Leppington. This is because correlated reflections are not included the case analyzed in this paper. When the bending wave number is smaller than or equals the wave number of sound, the real part of the impedance is the same for both cases