All Physics Faculty Publications

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Geophysical Research Letters

Volume

30

Issue

1319

Publication Date

3-26-2003

First Page

1

Last Page

4

Abstract

The Colorado State Sodium lidar has been upgraded to a two-beam system capable of simultaneous measurement of mesopause region temperature and winds, day and night, weather permitting. This paper reports the initial result of the first campaign, conducted in April 2002, with a total of 145 hours of observation including an 80-hour continuous data acquisition of temperature and zonal wind. The contour plots of the continuous data set show considerable coherence and activities of upward propagating waves, with a maximum day-night difference of 15.5 m/s in zonal wind at 88 km and of 10 K in temperature at 92 km. Oscillations at periods of 10-hour in temperature and 16-hour in zonal wind, implicating nonlinear interactions, can be identified. Decomposition of the time series into tidal periods, resulted in very good agreement with the GSWM00 predictions of diurnal tide. The observed altitude dependence in diurnal amplitudes and phases is consistent with the presence of a significant upward propagating wave, accompanying and modulating the main diurnal tide.

Comments

Published by American Geophysical Union in Geophysical Research Letters. Publisher PDF is available for download through link above.

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