A preliminary comparison of Na lidar and meteor radar zonal winds during geomagnetic quiet and disturbed conditions

TL;DR

This study compares Na lidar and meteor radar measurements of zonal winds during geomagnetic quiet and disturbed conditions, exploring potential errors caused by electric fields and ionization during geomagnetic disturbances.

Contribution

It provides the first co-located comparison of lidar and radar winds during geomagnetic disturbances, highlighting possible impacts of ionization and electric fields on wind retrieval accuracy.

Findings

High correlation (~0.8) between instruments during quiet conditions.

Discrepancies increase with ionization, especially at higher altitudes.

More data needed for statistical significance.

Abstract

We investigate the possibility that sufficiently large electric fields and/or ionization during geomagnetic disturbed conditions may invalidate the assumptions applied in the retrieval of neutral horizontal winds from meteor and/or lidar measurements. As per our knowledge, the possible errors in the wind estimation have never been reported. In the present case study, we have been using co-located meteor radar and sodium resonance lidar zonal wind measurements over Andenes (69.27$^{\circ}$N, 16.04$^{\circ}$E) during intense substorms in the declining phase of the January 2005 solar proton event (21-22 January 2005). In total, 14 h of measurements are available for the comparison, which covers both quiet and disturbed conditions. For comparison, the lidar zonal wind measurements are averaged over the same time and altitude as the meteor radar wind measurements. High cross correlations ($\sim$0.8) are found in all height regions. The discrepancies can be explained in light of differences in the observational volumes of the two instruments. Further, we extended the comparison to address the electric field and/or ionization impact on the neutral wind estimation. For the periods of low ionization, the neutral winds estimated with both instruments are quite consistent with each other. During periods of elevated ionization, comparatively large differences are noticed at the highermost altitude, which might be due to the electric field and/or ionization impact on the wind estimation. At present, one event is not sufficient to make any firm conclusion. Further study with more co-located measurements are needed to test the statistical significance of the result.