No abstract

[1] Imaging measurements of a bright wave event in the nighttime mesosphere were made on 14 November 1999 at two sites separated by over 500 km in the southwestern United States. The event was characterized by a sharp onset of a series of extensive wavefronts that propagated across the entire sky. The waves were easily visible to the naked eye, and the entire event was observed for at least 5 1 2 hours. The event was observed using three wide-angle imaging systems located at the Boston University field station at McDonald Observatory (MDO), Fort Davis, Texas, and the Starfire Optical Range (SOR), Albuquerque, New Mexico. The spaced imaging measurements provided a unique opportunity to estimate the physical extent and time history of the disturbance. Simultaneous radar neutral wind measurements in the 82 to 98 km altitude region were also made at the SOR which indicated that a strong vertical wind shear of 19.5 ms À1 km À1 occurred between 80 and 95 km just prior to the appearance of the disturbance. Simultaneous lidar temperature and density measurements made at Fort Collins, Colorado, $1100 km north of MDO, show the presence of a large ($50 K) temperature inversion layer at the time of the wave event. The observations indicated that the event was most probably due to an undular mesospheric bore, a relatively uncommon disturbance which has only recently been reported [Taylor et al., 1995a]. Evidence is also shown to suggest that a large east-west tropospheric frontal system lying over the northern United States was the origin of the disturbance.

The Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, is a new NASA Explorer mission that will explore the boundary between Earth and space to understand the physical connection between our world and our space environment. This connection is made in the ionosphere, which has long been known to exhibit variability associated with the sun and solar wind. However, it has been recognized in the 21st century that equally significant changes in ionospheric conditions are apparently associated with energy and momentum The Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) mission Edited by Doug Rowland and Thomas J. Immel B T.J. Immel

[1] A one-dimensional model is used to investigate the relations between gravity waves and O 2 and OH airglows perturbations. The amplitude and phase of the airglow perturbations induced by gravity waves (with period > 20 min) are calculated for different vertical wavelength (10-50 km) and damping rate. The model shows that for vertically propagating gravity waves, the amplitude of airglow perturbations observed from ground is larger for longer vertical wavelength, because of the smaller cancellation effect within each layer. The ratio of the amplitudes between O 2 and OH is smaller for larger wave damping. For upward propagating (downward phase progression) waves, the intensity perturbation in O 2 leads OH, and their phase difference (O 2 minus OH) is larger for smaller vertical length and/or stronger damping. The rotational temperature perturbation leads intensity perturbation in both layers. Their phase difference is also larger for smaller vertical length but is smaller for stronger damping. Based on these relations, the vertical wavelength and damping rate of gravity waves can be derived from simultaneous measurements of airglow perturbations in O 2 and OH layers.

[1] The O( 1 S) (green line) night airglow emission in response to atmospheric gravity wave (AGW) perturbations was simulated with a linear, one-dimensional model. The results were combined with previously modeled O 2 (b, 0-1) atmospheric band and OH Meinel band emission response to derive amplitude and phase relations among multiple airglow layers in response to gravity waves with various intrinsic parameters and damping rates (b). The simulations show that the vertical profile of the standard deviation of the perturbed green line volume emission rate (VER) has a centroid altitude that is 3 km lower and a full-width-half-maximum 2.1 km smaller than the unperturbed VER profile, similar to findings for the OH and O 2 (b) band layers. Relative phase differences and amplitudes of vertically propagating waves can be deduced from zenith observations of the layers. Airglow weighted responses to waves are related through a cancellation factor (CF) for both layer intensity and temperature. The vertical wavelength can be deduced from relative phase information of three airglow layers separated in altitude. The vertical flux of horizontal momentum associated with gravity waves is deduced from intrinsic wave parameters. Wave damping versus altitude is used to deduce the flux divergence and local accelerations resulting from dissipative waves. The simulations are useful in calculating wave information and wave effects on the atmosphere from multiwavelength, zenith airglow observations.