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Wind observation around the tops of the midlatitude cirrus by the MU radar and Raman/Mie lidar

Earth, Planets and Space volume 61, pages e33–e36 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Using a 46.5-MHz atmospheric radar referred to as the MU radar (MUR) and a Raman/Mie lidar installed at the Shigaraki (34°51′N, 136°06′E), continuous wind motions around the tops of the midlatitude cirrus are described for the first time. The cloud system extended from the northeast to southwest (35°N-50°N) along the eastward-moving trough and passed over Shigaraki in the nighttime between 5–6 November 2004. Cloud-top altitude observed by the lidar was located at ∼10.6 km around 1900 LST 5 November, then gradually descended to ∼8.4 km around 0500 LST 6 November. The westerly wind observed by MUR with 12-min and 150-m resolutions showed a rapid increase with altitude around the cloud tops and was almost always larger than 25 m s−1 above ∼1 km higher than the cloud tops. Objective reanalysis showed that a subtropical jet whose core existed to the south of Shigaraki caused a synoptic-scale vertical increase in the westerly wind around the cloud tops. Radiosondes observed a significant vertical increase of potential temperature (greater than 4 K within several hundred meters) around the cloud tops. MUR successfully observed fine time and altitude variations of winds which showed a good correspondence with the descending cloud tops.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere (RISH), Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto, 611-0011, Japan

    Masayuki K. Yamamoto, Toyohisa Kishi, Takuji Nakamura, Mamoru Yamamoto, Hiroyuki Hashiguchi & Shoichiro Fukao

  2. Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan

    Noriyuki Nishi

  3. Fukui University of Technology, Fukui, 910-8505, Japan

    Shoichiro Fukao

Authors
  1. Masayuki K. Yamamoto
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  2. Toyohisa Kishi
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  3. Takuji Nakamura
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  4. Noriyuki Nishi
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  5. Mamoru Yamamoto
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  6. Hiroyuki Hashiguchi
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  7. Shoichiro Fukao
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Correspondence to Masayuki K. Yamamoto.

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Yamamoto, M.K., Kishi, T., Nakamura, T. et al. Wind observation around the tops of the midlatitude cirrus by the MU radar and Raman/Mie lidar. Earth Planet Sp 61, e33–e36 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353190

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353190

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