Na temperature lidar measurements of gravity wave perturbations of wind, density and temperature in the mesopause region

Journal Article · Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1991 · Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/91GL01517· OSTI ID:5566316

She, C Y; Yu, J R; Huang, J W; Nagasawa, C ^[1]; Gardner, C S ^[2]

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1. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins (United States)
2. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana (United States)

High resolution temperature profiles of the mesopause region above Fort Collins, CO (40.6{degree}N, 105{degree}W) were measured with a Na lidar on the nights of March 2-3 and April 15-16, 1990, during the ALOHA-90 campaign. This paper reports the initial scientific analysis of these data which were used to compute (1) the altitude profiles of relative atmospheric temperature perturbations, (2) the mean Brunt-Vaisala frequency in the mesopause region, and (3) the vertical shear variance of horizontal winds. On March 2-3 and April 15-16, the rms temperature perturbations were 5.7 % and 7.1 %, the average Brunt-Vaisala periods were 4.9 min and 4.6 min, and the wind shear variances were 878 (ms{sup {minus}1}/km){sup 2} and 967 (ms{sup {minus}1}/km){sup 2}, respectively.

• OSTI ID: 5566316
• Journal Information: Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States), Vol. 18:7; ISSN 0094-8276
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
MESOSPHERE
GRAVITY WAVES
ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION
COLORADO
DATA ANALYSIS
DENSITY
EQUATIONS
FLUCTUATIONS
OPTICAL RADAR
SODIUM
TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION
WIND
ALKALI METALS
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELEMENTS
FEDERAL REGION VIII
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
METALS
NORTH AMERICA
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RADAR
RANGE FINDERS
USA
VARIATIONS
540110*