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Abstract
Global high-resolution radiosonde profiles are collected to characterize the atmospheric variability of wind and wind shear in the vertical. Such characterization is important for the preparation of the European Space Agency Atmospheric Dynamics Mission, Aeolus, wind profiling mission, in which the launch of a Doppler Wind Lidar (DWL) is planned in 2011. The analysis is performed over different climate regions and over a period of 10 years. Moreover, the radiosonde observations were collocated and compared with independent European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) wind fields.
The results from both datasets will be presented and the differences in wind and shear variability will be highlighted. ECMWF wind and shear has a typical resolution of about 1.7 km in the free troposphere and the ECMWF wind shear variability is generally about a factor of 2-3 smaller than the shear variability in the radiosondes. The difference in variability between land and sea and the diurnal changes in variability were investigated. These wind and shear differences and changes are mainly apparent in the lowest 2 km of the atmosphere and limited elsewhere. Our results will be used to set the vertical sampling of the Aeolus DWL.