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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-5021</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Online zero-Doppler reference tracking and wind speed correction for an iodine-cell Rayleigh Doppler lidar: method and validation</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Tan</surname>
<given-names>Zhiqiang</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Shu</surname>
<given-names>Shijiang</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Bu</surname>
<given-names>Lingbing</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Yang</surname>
<given-names>Bin</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff7">
<sup>7</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Huang</surname>
<given-names>Cong</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Wang</surname>
<given-names>Yungang</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Wang</surname>
<given-names>Cong</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8111-1156</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>State Key Laboratory of Environment Characteristics and Effects for Near-space, Nanjing University of Information Science  and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Key Laboratory of Intelligent Support Technology for Complex Environments, Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of  Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>HuaYun METSTAR Radar (Beijing) Company, Limited, Beijing, 100094, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>National Satellite Meteorological Center (National Centre for Space Weather), Beijing, 100081, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Innovation Center for FengYun Meteorological Satellite (FYSIC), Beijing, 100081, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>Key Laboratory of Space Weather, CMA, Beijing, 100081, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff7">
<label>7</label>
<addr-line>Nanjing Movelaser Company, Limited, Nanjing, 210034, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>25</day>
<month>08</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>25</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Zhiqiang Tan et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5021/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5021/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5021/egusphere-2026-5021.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5021/egusphere-2026-5021.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>In an iodine-cell-based Rayleigh Doppler lidar (RDLD), slow drift in the relative spectral position between the transmitted laser frequency and the discriminator response can shift the zero-Doppler reference and introduce systematic wind errors. This study proposes and validates an online zero-Doppler reference tracking and wind correction method based on time-division multiplexed measurements of seed reference light. The seed reference light and atmospheric backscatter share a single iodine-cell frequency discriminator, and the seed transmittance is used to determine the spectral position of the emitted laser relative to the current discriminator response and update the zero-Doppler reference online. In a dynamic frequency-tracking experiment, the difference between Doppler frequency-discrimination receiver (DFDR) and wavemeter measurements had a standard deviation of 1.25 MHz. During the 8 h continuous measurement, hour-scale variations of several megahertz were observed in the relative spectral position, indicating that the zero-Doppler reference may not remain strictly constant during long-term operation. With integration times of 100&amp;ndash;1000 s, the Allan deviation of the frequency measurements was reduced to approximately 0.29 MHz. The frequency difference between the seed reference light and pulsed laser had a standard deviation of 1.14 MHz, supporting the use of the seed reference light to track pulsed-laser frequency variations. In atmospheric observations, the mean vertical wind speed shifted from approximately 1.2 to &amp;minus;0.34 m s⁻&amp;sup1; after zero-Doppler reference correction. In a controlled frequency-offset experiment, RDLD retrieved equivalent wind speeds agreed well with values derived from independent wavemeter measurements. Measured zonal and meridional winds also agreed well with ERA5 reanalysis in their major vertical structures and temporal evolution. These results demonstrate that the method enables online monitoring and correction of the RDLD zero-Doppler reference without continuous reliance on an external wavemeter, improving the stability of long-term wind measurements.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="25"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Ministry of Ecology and Environment, The People’s Republic of China</funding-source>
<award-id>2025ZD1200900</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
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