TELMA is a powerful Rayleigh lidar designed for measurements of temperature and gravity waves in the middle atmosphere. In the lower stratosphere, it also detects aerosol layers and polar stratospheric clouds. Its maiden deployment was in Lauder, New Zealand during the international DEEPWAVE campaign in 2014. At that time, it was housed in a container.
Back at the institute, it was modified and subsequently installed in the laboratory of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. At this special location, it has been observing gravity waves within the polar vortex since the winter of 2023. This makes it the counterpart to its virtually identical twin instrument, CORAL, which measures the particularly strong orographic gravity waves at the edge of the polar vortex in southern Argentina.
Surroundings of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station (center of the image), where the TELMA lidar is installed.
