Neutral air density variations during strong planetary wave activity in the mesopause region derived from meteor radar observations

• Published in: Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics
• Main Authors: Stober, G., Jacobi, C., Matthias, V., Hoffmann, P., Gerding, M.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Science 2012
• Subjects: 570 Life sciences; biology; 620 Engineering; 500 Science; 530 Physics; Andøya
• Online Access: https://boris.unibe.ch/186167/1/1-s2.0-S136468261100280X-main.pdf; https://boris.unibe.ch/186167/

Meteor radar observations of upper mesospheric/lower thermospheric winds and temperatures are suitable to investigate planetary waves in the mesosphere. Here we present a case study of the winter season 2009/2010 for two mid-latitude stations at the edge of the polar vortex and one station within the polar vortex on the island of Andøya. The selected interval begins with the build up of a long period oscillation at the end of November 2009 and ends in March 2010 after the January 2010 stratospheric warming. Planetary wave signature is visible in the temperature as well as the wind field derived from standard meteor radar and EOS MLS observations. Further, we infer neutral air density variations caused by this long period oscillation from meteor peak altitude variations of the sporadic meteor component. The results are compared with density variation computed from MLS temperature and pressure data.