Fabio Vargas

First measurement of horizontal wind and temperature in the lower thermosphere (105–140 km) with a Na Lidar at Andes Lidar Observatory

We report the first measurement of nighttime atmospheric temperature and horizontal wind profiles in the lower thermosphere up to 140 km with the Na lidar at Andes Lidar Observatory in Cerro Pachón, Chile (30.25∘S, 70.74∘W), when enhanced thermospheric Na was observed. Temperature and horizontal wind were derived up to 140 km using various resolutions, with the lowest resolution of about 2.7 hr and 15 km above 130 km. Thus, the measurements span 60 km in vertical, more than double the traditional 25 km. On the night of 17 April 2015, the horizontal wind magnitude in the thermosphere exceeds 150 ms−1, consistent with past rocket measurements. The meridional wind shows a clear transition from the diurnal-tide-dominant mesopause to the semidiurnal-tide-dominant lower thermosphere. A lidar with a 100 times the power aperture product will be able to measure wind and temperature above 160 km and cover longer time span, providing key measurements for the study of atmosphere-space interactions in this region.

Evidence of the excitation of a ring-like gravity wave in the mesosphere over the Andes Lidar Observatory

On 23 March 2012, our all-sky imager recorded a concentric, ring-like gravity wave pattern. The wave arose within the area covered by images of both OH and O(1S) nightglow emissions taken at the Andes Lidar Observatory (ALO), Chile (30.3∘S, 70.7∘W). We have estimated the observed and intrinsic parameters of the event and located the wave source within the lower mesosphere altitude range using a reverse ray tracing method. By the analysis of GOES and LIS satellite images, we have not found evidence of neither convective nor lightning activity nearby ALO, indicating that the source of the ring-like wave was not directly in the troposphere. The absence of tropospheric activity and the height of the source of the event suggest that a secondary wave generation mechanism might be the cause of the ring-like wave. The secondary wave mechanism was likely triggered by a breaking, larger-scale primary wave excited by deep convection ∼1400 km northeast of ALO over Bolivia, as determined by a forward ray tracing scheme.

OH* imager response to turbulence-induced temperature fluctuations

The layer of the excited state hydroxyl radical (OH*) is formed in the mesopause region by the reaction of ozone (O3) and atomic hydrogen (H). We derive the theoretical expressions for the OH* brightness and rotational temperature (T*) responses to high-frequency atmospheric temperature perturbations. The theory is used to calculate the 1-D and 2-D horizontal wave number spectra of the OH* and T* image fluctuations induced by atmospheric turbulence. By applying the theory to images of a breaking gravity wave packet, acquired by the Utah State University Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper, we show that existing infrared OH* imager technology can observe the evolution of gravity wave breakdown and characterize the resulting turbulent eddies in the source region and in the inertial subrange of the turbulence spectrum. For the example presented here, the RMS OH* brightness fluctuations induced by the gravity wave packet was 2.90% and by the associated turbulence was 1.07%. Unfortunately, the T* fluctuations induced by turbulence are usually too small to be observed in the OH* rotational temperature maps.