Observation of upper atmospheric temperature by Kunming all-sky meteor radar

Using the data collected by the all-sky meteor radar with two different operating frequencies at the Kunming station (25. 6 degrees N, 103. 8 degrees E) during the special joint observation experiment in 2011, we determined the mesopause above the height of peak meteor activity based on the method improved by Hocking with different temperature gradient retrieval of atmospheric temperature at 88 km and 85 km over Kunming. Comparison with the Aura satellite temperature data shows that two separate meteor radars can measure correct atmospheric temperature at the height of peak meteor activity, however the correlation between temperature determined by the meteor radar using temperature gradient model and satellite temperature is not well. While the temperature determined by meteor radar using satellite temperature gradients have good correlation with satellite temperature. It is concluded that the accurate temperature gradient is very important in the Hocking's method.