A New Technology to Detect the Tropopause, Solving Some Radiosonde Data’s Insufficient Detection Height Problem

This study analyzed variations of the global tropopause structure using radiosonde products from 2010 to 2020. First, the covariance transformation of the logarithm of the refractivity (CTLR) method was successfully applied to radiosonde data to determine tropopause, which also contributed to solve the problem that CTLR cannot be widely utilized on radiosonde data due to low top height. Then, nearly 1000 radiosonde stations’ observed data from 2010 to 2020 were collected to determine global tropopause with the CTLR method. Finally, the study analyzed the characteristics of changes in global tropopause in the last decade. The results revealed a continuous rise in tropopause from 2010 to 2020 and it increased at a rate of 11–13 m/year. The measurements from the lapse rate tropopause (LRT) method are consistent with those results. The continuous rise of tropopause (predominantly mid-latitude) is primarily due to tropospheric warming and stratospheric cooling. This increasing trend remains after removing natural variability, which can provide further observational evidence for global warming due to human activities.