Thermal structure of the mesopause region during the WADIS-2 rocket campaign

Abstract

Abstract. This paper presents simultaneous temperature measurements by three independent instruments during the WADIS-2 rocket campaign in northern Norway (69∘ N, 14∘ E) on 5 March 2015. Vertical profiles were measured in situ with the CONE instrument. Continuous mobile IAP Fe lidar (Fe lidar) measurements during a period of 24 h, as well as horizontally resolved temperature maps by the Utah State University (USU) Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM) in the mesopause region, are analysed. Vertical and horizontal temperature profiles by all three instruments are in good agreement. A harmonic analysis of the Fe lidar measurements shows the presence of waves with periods of 24, 12, 8, and 6 h. Strong waves with amplitudes of up to 10 K at 8 and 6 h are found. The 24 and 12 h components play only a minor role during these observations. In contrast only a few short periodic gravity waves are found. Horizontally resolved temperatures measured with the AMTM in the hydroxyl (OH) layer are used to connect the vertical temperature profiles. In the field of view of 200 km×160 km only small deviations from the horizontal mean of the order of 5 K are found. Therefore only weak gravity wave signatures occurred. This suggests horizontal structures of more than 200 km. A comparison of Fe lidar, rocket-borne measurements, and AMTM temperatures indicates an OH centroid altitude of about 85 km.

Atmospheric tomography using the Nordic Meteor Radar Cluster and Chilean Observation Network De Meteor Radars: network details and 3D-Var retrieval

“…The second option is a mean wind vector for the horizontal wind and w = 0 m s −1 . Finally, the third option is a data assimilation wind field, which is estimated from a distance-weighted single station wind retrieval or using satellite data, e.g., TIDI (Wu et al, 2006) assuming again w = 0 m s −1 . A potential satellite data assimilation appeared to have little impact considering the uncertainty in the geographic location of the observations and the recommended temporal averaging and thus was omitted in the current retrievals.…”

“…Ground-based instruments such as Rayleigh lidars and radars obtain high-resolution data of temperature, density and/or wind profiles at a single geographic location (e.g., Baumgarten et al, 2017;Hauchecorne and Chanin, 1980;Hoffmann et al, 2007;Takahashi et al, 2015;Rüfenacht et al, 2018), which again creates ambiguities in deriving the intrinsic GW properties as often only either temperature or wind observations are available. There are some resonance lidars with day-and nighttime capabilities to simultaneously observe horizontal winds and temperatures at the MLT (Krueger et al, 2015;Wörl et al, 2019). These measurements permit us to determine the intrinsic gravity wave properties through a hodograph analysis, modeling or polarization relations (Fritts et al, 2002).…”

Spatial and temporal variation in long-term temperature and water vapor in the mesopause Region

“…The temperature at the mesopause region exhibits a robust temporal variation (Mulligan et al, 1995;Offermann et al, 2010;Clancy and Rusch, 1989;Hedin, 1991;Dyrland et al, 2010;She et al, 2000;French et al, 2020b;Dalin et al, 2020;Grygalashvyly et al, 2014). Long-term and short-term temperature trends were studied by (Beig, 2011a(Beig, , 2011bKalicinsky et al, 2016;Pancheva et al, 2013;She et al, 2015;Venkat Ratnam et al, 2010;Wörl et al, 2019;Xu et al, 2007; and recently reviewed by Gul 2024). Short-term variability in temperature is primarily due to small-scale gravity waves and tides (Dalin et al, 2017;Zhao et al, 2020).…”

Simultaneous in situ measurements of small-scale structures in neutral, plasma, and atomic oxygen densities during the WADIS sounding rocket project

“…Thus, e.g., it is generally accepted that atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) play an essential role in the dynamics of this region and that they couple it with the lower and upper atmosphere (e.g., Becker and Schmitz, 2002;Fritts and Alexander, 2003;Alexander et al, 2010). When propagating, GWs might dissipate and thereby generate turbulence (e.g., Yamada et al, 2001;Selvaraj et al, 2016, and references therein). Apart from momentum deposition, which is a key coupling process, this also affects the mixing and redistribution of trace constituents (e.g., Fukao et al, 1994;Bishop et al, 2004).…”