Comparison of optically measured and radar-derived horizontal neutral winds. Master's thesis

Technical Report · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1990

OSTI ID:6154610

Christie, M S

Nighttime thermospheric winds for Sondrestrom, Greenland from 11 nights between 1983 and 1988, have been compared to learn about the O(+)-O collision cross section and the high-latitude atomic oxygen density. The horizontal winds in the magnetic meridian were derived indirectly from incoherent-scatter radar (ISR) measurements on ion velocities antiparallel to the magnetic field and directly from Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) measurements of Doppler shifts of the (6300-A) emission of atomic oxygen. In deriving the radar winds, the O(+)-O collision cross section, was scaled by a factor of f what was varied from 0.5 to 5.1. On the basis of several arguments the altitude of the 6300-A emission was assumed to be 230 km. The best agreement between the ISR and FPI winds was obtained when f was increased substantially, to between 1.7 and 3.4. If the average peak emission altitude were higher, these factors would be larger; if it were lower, they would be somewhat smaller. However, if the average altitude were substantially lower it would have been more difficult to have obtained agreement between the two techniques.

• Research Organization: Air Force Inst. of Tech., Wright-Patterson AFB, OH (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6154610
• Report Number(s): AD-A-227690/5/XAB; AFIT/CI/CIA--90-108
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640200* -- Atmospheric Physics
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ALTITUDE
CHARGED PARTICLES
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
COLLISIONS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CROSS SECTIONS
DENSITY
DOPPLER EFFECT
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELEMENTS
EMISSION
FABRY-PEROT INTERFEROMETER
GREENLAND
INTERFEROMETERS
IONS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
NIGHT SKY
NONMETALS
ORIENTATION
OXYGEN
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RADAR
RANGE FINDERS
SKY
THERMOSPHERE
VELOCITY
WIND