Correlative Dynamics Studies Using the Air Force Sodium Lidar and Associated Instrumentation at the ALOMAR Observatory

• Main Author: Fritts, Dave
• Other Authors: NORTHWEST RESEARCH ASSOCIATES INC BELLEVUE WA
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2003
• Subjects: Meteorology; *OPTICAL RADAR; *DYNAMICS; *INSTRUMENTATION; THERMAL PROPERTIES; DATA PROCESSING; IONOSPHERE; MESOSPHERE; THERMOSPHERE; STABILITY; FLUX(RATE); HIGH TEMPERATURE; TURBULENCE; GROUND BASED; AMPLITUDE; OBSERVATORIES; GRAVITY WAVES; ALOMAR(ARCTIC LIDAR OBSERVATORY FOR MIDDLE ATMOSPHERE RESEARCH); ALOMAR OBSERVATORY; Alomar; Arctic
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA419537; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA419537

The present award was for correlative use of the Weber lidar (built and installed at ALOMAR under previous DURIP funding) for dynamics studies in the mesosphere, thermosphere, and ionosphere. Initial activities focused on expanded capabilities, frequency stability, and stable operations of the Weber lidar. Initial measurements demonstrated a dual-beam capability, off-vertical measurements of momentum fluxes, and full daytime operations. Efforts during 2002 and 2003 emphasized collaborative measurements in support of the MaCWAVE summer and winter rocket and ground-based measurement campaigns. Analyses of these results have revealed a highly active and variable summer mesopause environment, with large wave amplitudes, extreme temperature and wind gradients, and strong turbulence and mixing both above and below the mesopause. Winter data reveal a similarly active environment exhibiting strong tidal motions, filtering of the gravity wave spectrum by mean winds, and strong temporal variability of the motion fields. Subsequent data analyses will quantify these dynamics further. Related theoretical efforts contributed to assessments of the consequences of local body forcing by spatially and temporally localized gravity wave breaking and to an understanding of the effects of gravity wave breaking and turbulence generation on wave amplitude and the character and statistics of turbulence that results. The original document contains color images. All DTIC reproductions will be in black and white.