Mesospheric density measured by Rayleigh lidar over Golmud

The MARMOT(Middle Atmosphere Remote Mobile Observatory in Tibet) lidar had been deployed at Golmud(36.25N, 94.54E), Qinghai Province, for measuring the mesospheric density from 50 to 90 km from August 2013 to October 2015. An improved method for Rayleigh lidar retrieval of the mesospheric density was proposed, by using the TIMED/SABER satellite data at 50 km as the reference value. The results show that the lidar derived densities are consistent with the satellite data. However, both the lidar and satellite measurements of mesospheric densities are mostly lower than the MSIS-00 model, with the largest discrepancies occurred at 75-90 km in winter.