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The Balloon Lidar Experiment (BOLIDE), which was part of the Polar Mesospheric Cloud Turbulence (PMC Turbo) Balloon Mission has captured vertical profiles of PMCs during a 6 d flight along the Arctic circle in July 2018. The high-resolution soundings (20 m vertical and 10 s temporal resolution) reveal highly structured layers with large gradients in the volume backscatter coefficient. We systematically screen the BOLIDE dataset for small-scale variability by assessing these gradients at high resolution. We find longer tails of the probability density distributions of these gradients compared to a normal distribution, indicating intermittent behaviour. The high occurrence rate of large gradients is assessed in relation to the 15 min averaged layer brightness and the spectral power of short-period (5–62 min) gravity waves based on PMC layer altitude variations. We find that variability on small scales occurs during weak, moderate, and strong gravity wave activity. Layers with below-average brightness are less likely to show small-scale variability in conditions of strong gravity wave activity. We present and discuss the signatures of this small-scale variability, and possibly related dynamical processes, and identify potential cases for future case studies and modelling efforts.

The mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) is a dynamic layer of the earth's atmosphere. This region marks the interface at which neutral atmosphere dynamics begin to influence the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. However, our understanding of this region and our ability to accurately simulate it in global circulation models (GCMs) is limited by a lack of observations, especially in remote locations. To this end, a meteor radar was deployed from 2016 to 2020 on the remote mountainous island of South Georgia (54∘ S, 36∘ W) in the Southern Ocean. In this study we use these new measurements to characterise the fundamental dynamics of the MLT above South Georgia including large-scale winds, solar tides, planetary waves (PWs), and mesoscale gravity waves (GWs). We first present an improved method for time–height localisation of radar wind measurements and characterise the large-scale MLT winds. We then determine the amplitudes and phases of the diurnal (24 h), semidiurnal (12 h), terdiurnal (8 h), and quardiurnal (6 h) solar tides at this latitude. We find very large amplitudes up to 30 m s−1 for the quasi 2 d PW in summer and, combining our measurements with the meteor SAAMER radar in Argentina, show that the dominant modes of the quasi 5, 10, and 16 d PWs are westward 1 and 2. We investigate and compare wind variance due to both large-scale “resolved” GWs and small-scale “sub-volume” GWs in the MLT and characterise their seasonal cycles. Last, we use our radar observations and satellite temperature observations from the Microwave Limb Sounder to test a climatological simulation of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM). We find that WACCM exhibits a summertime mesopause near 80 km altitude that is around 10 K warmer and 10 km lower in altitude than observed. Above 95 km altitude, summertime meridional winds in WACCM reverse to poleward, but this not observed in radar observations in this altitude range. More significantly, we find that wintertime zonal winds between 85 to 105 km altitude are eastward up to 40 m s−1 in radar observations, but in WACCM they are westward up to 20 m s−1. We propose that this large discrepancy may be linked to the impacts of secondary GWs (2GWs) on the residual circulation, which are not included in most global models, including WACCM. These radar measurements can therefore provide vital constraints that can guide the development of GCMs as they extend upwards into this important region of the atmosphere.

A medium frequency spaced-antenna radar has been operating at Rothera station, Antarctica (67° S, 68° W) for two periods, between 1997-1998 and since 2002, measuring winds in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. In this paper monthly mean winds are derived and presented along with three years of radiosonde balloon data for comparison with the HWM-93 model atmosphere and other high latitude southern hemisphere sites. The observed meridional winds are slightly more northwards than those predicted by the model above 80 km in the winter months and below 80 km in summer. In addition, the altitude of the summer time zero crossing of the zonal winds above the westward jet is overestimated by the model by up to 8 km. These data are then merged with the wind climatology obtained from falling sphere measurements made during the PORTA campaign at Rothera in early 1998 and the HWM-93 model atmosphere to generate a complete zonal wind climatology between 0 and 100 km as a benchmark for future studies at Rothera. A westwards (eastwards) maximum of 44 ms-1 at 67 km altitude occurs in mid December (62 ms-1 at 37 km in mid July). The 0 ms-1 wind contour reaches a maximum altitude of 90 km in mid November and a minimum altitude of 18 km in January extending into mid March at 75 km and early October at 76 km.

A mesospheric front was observed with an all-sky airglow imager on the night of 9–10 July 2007 at Ferraz Station (62° S, 58° W), located on King George island on the Antarctic Peninsula. The observed wave propagated from southwest to northeast with a well defined wave front and a series of crests behind the main front. The wave parameters were obtained via a 2-D Fourier transform of the imager data providing a horizontal wavelength of 33 km, an observed period of 6 min, and a horizontal phase speed of 92 m s−1. Simultaneous mesospheric winds were measured with a medium frequency (MF) radar at Rothera Station (68° S, 68° W) and temperature profiles were obtained from the SABER instrument on the TIMED satellite. These wind and temperature profiles were used to estimate the propagation environment of the wave event. A wavelet technique was applied to the wind in the plane of wave propagation at the OH emission height spanning three days centered on the front event to define the dominant periodicities. Results revealed a dominance of near-inertial periods, and semi-diurnal and terdiurnal tides suggesting that the ducting structure enabling mesospheric front propagation occurred on large spatial scales. The observed tidal motions were used to reconstruct the winds employing a least-squares method, which were then compared to the observed ducting environment. Results suggest an important contribution of large-scale winds to the ducting structure, but with buoyancy frequency variations in the vertical also expected to be important. These results allow us to conclude that the wave front event was supported by a duct including contributions from both winds and temperature.