These data sets provide an updated climatology of zonal mean temperatures and winds covering altitudes 0-85 km. They are based on combining data from a variety of sources, and represent the time period 1992-1997. More details of the individual data sets, extensive comparisons with other climatologies (including the CIRA 1986 climatology), and summary statistics of means and variability are available in SPARC (2002) and Randel et al. (2004). The zonal mean temperature climatology is derived using UK Met Office (METO) analyses over 1000-1.5 hPa, combined with Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) temperature climatology over pressures 1.5-0.0046 hPa (~85 km). The monthly HALOE climatology is best sampled for the latitude range 50 N-50 S, and mesospheric temperatures poleward of 50 N-S are derived from a climatology from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), with offsets at each pressure level used to match the HALOE data at 50 N and 50 S (i.e. the polar latitudinal gradients from MLS data are used). The monthly zonal wind climatology is derived from the UARS Reference Atmosphere Project (URAP), combining results from METO analyses with winds the UARS High Resolution Doppler Imager (HRDI). Details from the URAP winds are described in Swinbank and Ortland (2003). In order to provide smooth monthly estimates, a harmonic analysis of the available time series over 1992-1997 is used, including annual and semi-annual components.
Monthly and zonally averaged data derived by W.J. Randel are available on CEDA and can be accessed anonymously via:
sparc-ftp.ceda.ac.uk/sparc/ref_clim/randel/temp_wind
Please use an ftp client such as FileZilla to connect to the ftp server as many browsers, including chrome, no longer support urls using the ftp protocol.
| Variable | Levels (mb) | Data File | Plots | Plot Loop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temperature | 1000-0.0046 | temp.dat | Display |
|
| Zonal Wind | 100-0.000046 | wind.dat | Display |
|
References
Randel, W.J. et al., (2004), The SPARC Intercomparison of Middle Atmosphere Climatologies. J. Climate, 17, 986-1003, doi:10.1175/1520-0442(2004)017<0986:TSIOMC>2.0.CO;2.
Swinbank, R. and D.A. Ortland, (2003), Compilation of wind data for the UARS Reference Atmosphere Project, J. Geophys. Res., 108, D19, 4615, doi:10.1029/2002JD003135.