Characteristics of Short-Period Wavelike Features near 90 km Altitude From Airglow and Lidar Observations Over Maui

Details Characteristics of Short-Period Wavelike Features near 90 km Altitude From Airglow and Lidar Observations Over Maui Characteristics of Short-Period Wavelike Features near 90 km Altitude From Airglow and Lidar Observations Over Maui

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsa21a0233h&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SA21A-0233

Physics

0310 Airglow And Aurora, 3379 Turbulence (4490), 3384 Acoustic-Gravity Waves

Scientific paper

Small scale (less than 15 km horizontal wavelength) wavelike structures, known as ripples are a common occurrence in OH airglow images. Recent case studies attribute their origin to the presence of either convective or dynamical instabilities. However, little is known about their frequency of occurrence and characteristics such as period and wavelength. The Maui-MALT Observatory, located on Mt. Haleakala is instrumented with a Na wind/temperature lidar which allows the determination of whether the atmosphere is dynamically or convectively unstable, and a fast OH airglow camera which takes images every 3 seconds with a sensitivity high enough to see the ripples. This study reports on two months of observations in October/November 2003 and August 2004, 8 nights of which also included Na lidar measurements. The nominal observed period for the ripples is between 2 and 4 minutes. The results suggest that instability features occur in the 85 to 90 km region of the atmosphere around 20 percent of the time. While there are clear night to night variations the average is similar for both the 2003 and 2004 observations. In addition a few of the small-scale structures are not ripples caused by instabilities, but rather are short horizontal wavelength evanescent waves. Their fractional intensity fluctuations are as large or larger than those of the ripple instabilities. Unlike the instabilities, the origin of the evanescent waves is not determined.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Characteristics of Short-Period Wavelike Features near 90 km Altitude From Airglow and Lidar Observations Over Maui does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Characteristics of Short-Period Wavelike Features near 90 km Altitude From Airglow and Lidar Observations Over Maui, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Characteristics of Short-Period Wavelike Features near 90 km Altitude From Airglow and Lidar Observations Over Maui will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-965098