Pan-Arctic Studies of the Coupled Tropospheric, Stratospheric and Mesospheric Circulation

This observational study combines satellite measurements, lidar measurements, and meteorological soundings and analyses to study the troposphere, stratosphere, and mesosphere will be conducted. The study is an international collaboration between investigators at six institutions in Canada, Germany, Japan and the United States. The satellite observations yield global synoptic-scale temperature measurements of the mesosphere and upper stratosphere while the meteorological soundings and analyses provide global synoptic-scale measurements of the troposphere and lower stratosphere. An international network of four Rayleigh lidars located in observatories at Andoya, Norway (Arctic Lidar Observatory for Middle Atmosphere Research (ALOMAR)), Chatanika, Alaska (Poker Flats Research Range (PFRR)), Eureka, Canada, Nunavat (Eureka Stratospheric Observatory (ESO)), and Kangarlussuaq, Greenland (Sondrestrom Upper Atmospheric Research Facility (SUARF)), provide a chain of high resolution temperature measurements from the eastern Arctic to the western Arctic. This study will provide data and analyses in support of studies of ozone depletion, stratospheric climate, climate oscillations in the Arctic, and long-range horizontal and vertical transport in the Arctic.