Earth Planets Space, 51, 611–620, 1999 Dynamics of the lower thermosphere over South Pole from meteor radar wind measurements

• Main Author: J. M. Forbes
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1995
• Subjects: South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.494.2785; http://www.terrapub.co.jp/journals/EPS/pdf/5107_08/51070611.pdf

latitude from South Pole along the longitude meridians 0◦, 90◦E, 90◦W, and 180◦. The scientific advances achieved to date through analyses of these data are presented, including updates to several of our previously published works. The findings addressed herein include the following: (1) Strong divergences of zonal-mean meridional winds occasionally occur over South Pole, implying extreme vertical winds; (2) The monthly mean zonally asymmetric (zonal wavenumber s = 1) wind component varies during the year in a manner consistent with migration of the center of the polar vortex with respect to the geographic (rotational) pole; (3) Strong (>15 m/s) westward-propagating migrating diurnal (s = 1) and non-migrating semidiurnal (s = 1) oscillations exist except during winter months; (4) Long-period (∼2–10 days) waves exist during winter months which are primarily eastward-propagating; (5) Intradiurnal (periods ∼6–11.5 hours) westward-propagating oscillations exist, which are thought to be gravitational normal modes, or “Lamb” waves.