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JGR / Atmospheres 128(11), e2022JD038249 (2023). doi:10.1029/2022JD038249, An international joint research project, entitled Interhemispheric Coupling Study by Observations and Modelling (ICSOM), is ongoing. In the late 2000s, an interesting form of interhemispheric coupling (IHC) was discovered: when warming occurs in the winter polar stratosphere, the upper mesosphere in the summer hemisphere also becomes warmer with a time lag of days. This IHC phenomenon is considered to be a coupling through processes in the middle atmosphere (i.e., stratosphere, mesosphere, and lower thermosphere). Several plausible mechanisms have been proposed so far, but they are still controversial. This is mainly because of the difficulty in observing and simulating gravity waves (GWs) at small scales, despite the important role they are known to play in middle atmosphere dynamics. In this project, by networking sparsely but globally distributed radars, mesospheric GWs have been simultaneously observed in seven boreal winters since 2015/16. We have succeeded in capturing five stratospheric sudden warming events and two polar vortex intensification events. This project also includes the development of a new data assimilation system to generate long-term reanalysis data for the whole middle atmosphere, and simulations by a state-of-the-art GW-permitting general circulation model using the reanalysis data as initial values. By analyzing data from these observations, data assimilation, and model simulation, comprehensive studies to investigate the mechanism of IHC are planned. This paper provides an overview of ICSOM, but even initial results suggest that not only GWs but also large-scale waves are important for the mechanism of the IHC., Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ

We report the first simultaneous lidar observations of thermosphere-ionosphere sporadic nickel and Na (TISNi and TISNa) layers in altitudes ∼105–120 km over Yanqing (40.42°N, 116.02°E), Beijing. From two years of data spanning April 2019 to April 2020 and July 2020 to June 2021, TISNi layers in May and June possess high densities with a maximum of 818 cm −3 on 17 May 2021, exceeding the density of main layer peak (∼85 km) by ∼4 times. They correlate with strong sporadic E layers observed nearby. TISNa layers occur at similar altitudes as TISNi with spatial-temporal correlation coefficients of ∼1. The enrichment of Ni in TISNi is evident as the [TISNi]/[TISNa] column abundance ratios are ∼1, about 10 times the main layer [Ni]/[Na] ratios. These results are largely explained by neutralization of converged Ni + and Na + ions via recombination with electrons. Calculations show direct recombination dominating over dissociative recombination above ∼105 km.

Observations of the atmospheric trace gases are crucial for quality assessment of the human living environment. Multiaxis differential optical absorption spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) is the most promising candidate to meet the requirements on observations of atmospheric trace gases with high sensitivity, good stability, and a wide range of regional monitoring. The shipborne observations of tropospheric trace gases (NO2, SO2, and O3) over a coastal city, Qingdao, with MAX-DOAS were conducted by a Chinese oceanographic research vessel, XiangYangHong 08 (XYH 08). During the observational campaign, the shipborne MAX-DOAS equipment was used to make anchor measurements for 3 days, and a sailing measurement along Qingdao coast for half an hour. Measurement results are presented for both sailing and anchor point measurements in this paper. Combining geometry characteristic of the monitoring area, it can be concluded from the sailing measurements that the traffic emissions may play an important role in the boundary layer (BL) pollution of a coastal city’s atmosphere. The anchor point measurements showed that the NO2 vertical column density (VCD) mean value of Jiaozhou Bay is about 2.7 times of the value of the Qingdao offshore sea area. Likewise, the tropospheric VCDs of SO2 and O3 have an increase of 30% and 40%, respectively, on 1 September in Jiaozhou Bay, compared to the other 2 days in Qingdao offshore sea area.

Random‐noise‐induced biases are inherent issues to the accurate derivation of second‐order statistical parameters (e.g., variances, fluxes, energy densities, and power spectra) from lidar and radar measurements. We demonstrate here for the first time an altitude‐interleaved method for eliminating such biases, following the original proposals by Gardner and Chu (2020, https://doi.org/10.1364/ao.400375) who demonstrated a time‐interleaved method. Interleaving in altitude bins provides two statistically independent samples over the same time period and nearly the same altitude range, thus enabling the replacement of variances that include the noise‐induced biases with covariances that are intrinsically free of such biases. Comparing the interleaved method with previous variance subtraction (VS) and spectral proportion (SP) methods using gravity wave potential energy density calculated from Antarctic lidar data and from a forward model, this study finds the accuracy and precision of each method differing in various conditions, each with its own strengths and weakness. VS performs well in high‐SNR, yet its accuracy fails at lower‐SNR as it often yields negative values. SP is accurate and precise under high‐SNR, remaining accurate in worse conditions than VS would, yet develops a positive bias under low‐SNR. The interleaved method is accurate in all SNRs but requires a large number of samples to drive random‐noise terms in covariances toward zero and to compensate for the reduced precision due to the splitting of return signals. Therefore, selecting the proper bias removal/elimination method for actual signal and sample conditions is crucial in utilizing lidar/radar data, as neglecting this can conceal trends or overstate atmospheric variability.

National Science FoundationNational Science Foundation (NSF) [AGS-1452351, AGS-2029162, OPP-1443726]; NSFNational Science Foundation (NSF) [AGS-2033787, OPP-1744828]; AFOSR MURI grant [FA9559-16-1-0364]

We report the first simultaneous, common‐volume lidar observations of thermosphere‐ionosphere Fe (TIFe) and Na (TINa) layers in Antarctica. We also report the observational discovery of nearly one‐to‐one correspondence between TIFe and aurora activity, enhanced ionization layers, and converging electric fields. Distinctive TIFe layers have a peak density of ~384 cm−3 and the TIFe mixing ratio peaks around 123 km, ~5 times the mesospheric layer maximum. All evidence shows that Fe+ ion‐neutralization is the major formation mechanism of TIFe layers. The TINa mixing ratio often exhibits a broad peak at TIFe altitudes, providing evidence for in situ production via Na+ neutralization. However, the tenuous TINa layers persist long beyond TIFe disappearance and reveal gravity wave perturbations, suggesting a dynamic background of neutral Na, but not Fe, above 110 km. The striking differences between distinct TIFe and diffuse TINa suggest differential transport between Fe and Na, possibly due to mass separation., Key Points First simultaneous lidar observations show striking differences between distinct TIFe and diffuse TINa, suggesting differential transportWe report the observational discovery of the correlation of TIFe with aurora and enhanced ionization, revealing plasma‐neutral couplingAll observational evidence points to the Fe+ ion‐neutralization origin of TIFe while suggesting a background of neutral Na above 110 km

The discovery of the thermosphere-ionosphere Fe (TIFe) layers has opened a door to exploring the least understood thermosphere and ionosphere region between 100 and 200 km with ground-based lidar instruments. The characteristics of the polar TIFe layers, and the impacts of the atmosphere neutral dynamics, electrodynamics, and metallic chemistry on the formation of TIFe layers deserve further investigation, especially the diurnal cycles of TIFe layers observed by lidar. This paper aims at investigating the major driving forces with 1-D Thermosphere-Ionosphere Fe/Fe+ (TIFe) model. A main question to answer is whether neutral dynamics like tidal winds or electrodynamics like the convection electric fields and currents in the magnetosphere and ionosphere are responsible for the diurnal cycle of TIFe layers.

We present the first statistical study of gravity waves with periods of 0.3–2.5 h that are persistent and dominant in the vertical winds measured with the University of Colorado STAR Na Doppler lidar in Boulder, CO (40.1°N, 105.2°W). The probability density functions of the wave amplitudes in temperature and vertical wind, ratios of these two amplitudes, phase differences between them, and vertical wavelengths are derived directly from the observations. The intrinsic period and horizontal wavelength of each wave are inferred from its vertical wavelength, amplitude ratio, and a designated eddy viscosity by applying the gravity wave polarization and dispersion relations. The amplitude ratios are positively correlated with the ground-based periods with a coefficient of ~0.76. The phase differences between the vertical winds and temperatures ( φ W − φ T ) follow a Gaussian distribution with 84.2±26.7°, which has a much larger standard deviation than that predicted for non-dissipative waves (~3.3°). The deviations of the observed phase differences from their predicted values for non-dissipative waves may indicate wave dissipation. The shorter-vertical-wavelength waves tend to have larger phase difference deviations, implying that the dissipative effects are more significant for shorter waves. The majority of these waves have the vertical wavelengths ranging from 5 to 40 km with a mean and standard deviation of ~18.6 and 7.2 km, respectively. For waves with similar periods, multiple peaks in the vertical wavelengths are identified frequently and the ones peaking in the vertical wind are statistically longer than those peaking in the temperature. The horizontal wavelengths range mostly from 50 to 500 km with a mean and median of ~180 and 125 km, respectively. Therefore, these waves are mesoscale waves with high-to-medium frequencies. Since they have recently become resolvable in high-resolution general circulation models (GCMs), this statistical study provides an important and timely reference for them.

Waves in the atmosphere and ocean are inherently intermittent, with amplitudes, frequencies, or wavelengths varying in time and space. Most waves exhibit wave packet-like properties, propagate at oblique angles, and are often observed in two-dimensional (2-D) datasets. These features make the wavelet transforms, especially the 2-D wavelet approach, more appealing than the traditional windowed Fourier analysis, because the former allows adaptive time-frequency window width (i.e., automatically narrowing window size at high frequencies and widening at low frequencies), while the latter uses a fixed envelope function. This study establishes the mathematical formalism of modified 1-D and 2-D Morlet wavelet transforms, ensuring that the power of the wavelet transform in the frequency/wavenumber domain is equivalent to the mean power of its counterpart in the time/space domain. Consequently, the modified wavelet transforms eliminate the bias against high-frequency/small-scale waves in the conventional wavelet methods and many existing codes. Based on the modified 2-D Morlet wavelet transform, we put forward a wave recognition methodology that automatically identifies and extracts 2-D quasi-monochromatic wave packets and then derives their wave properties including wave periods, wavelengths, phase speeds, and time/space spans. A step-by-step demonstration of this methodology is given on analyzing the lidar data taken during 28–30 June 2014 at McMurdo, Antarctica. The newly developed wave recognition methodology is then applied to two more lidar observations in May and July 2014, to analyze the recently discovered persistent gravity waves in Antarctica. The decomposed inertia-gravity wave characteristics are consistent with the conclusion in Chen et al. (2016a) that the 3–10 h waves are persistent and dominant, and exhibit lifetimes of multiple days. They have vertical wavelengths of 20–30 km, vertical phase speeds of 0.5–2 m/s, and horizontal wavelengths up to several thousands kilometers in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). The variations in the extracted wave properties from different months in winter indicate a month-to-month variability in the gravity wave activities in the Antarctic MLT region.

With a thermosphere-ionosphere Fe/Fe+ (TIFe) model developed from first principles at the University of Colorado, we present the first quantitative investigation of formation mechanisms of thermospheric Fe layers observed by lidar in Antarctica. These recently discovered neutral metal layers in the thermosphere between 100–200 km provide unique tracers for studies of fundamental processes in the space-atmosphere interaction region. The TIFe model formulates and expands the TIFe theory originally proposed by Chu et al. that the thermospheric Fe layers are produced through the neutralization of converged Fe+ layers. Through testing mechanisms and reproducing the 28 May 2011 event at McMurdo, we conceive the lifecycle of meteoric metals via deposition, transport, chemistry and wave dynamics for thermospheric Fe layers with gravity wave signatures. While the meteor injection of iron species is negligible above 120 km, the polar electric field transports metallic ions Fe+ upward from their main deposition region into the E–F regions, providing the major source of Fe+ (and accordingly Fe) in the thermosphere. Atmospheric wave-induced vertical shears of vertical and horizontal winds converge Fe+ to form dense Fe+ layers. Direct electron-Fe+ recombination is the major channel to neutralize Fe+ layers to form Fe above ~120 km. Fe layer shapes are determined by multiple factors of neutral winds, electric field, and aurora activity. Gravity-wave-induced vertical wind plays a key role in forming gravity-wave-shaped Fe layers. Aurora particle precipitation enhances Fe+ neutralization by increasing electron density, while accelerating Fe loss via charge transfer with enhanced NO+ and O2+ densities.

Five years of atmospheric temperature data, collected with an Fe Boltzmann lidar by the University of Colorado group from 2011 to 2015 at Arrival Heights, are used to characterize the vertical wavelengths, periods, vertical phase speeds, frequency spectra, and vertical wave number spectra of stratospheric gravity waves from 30 to 50 km altitudes. Over 1000 dominant gravity wave events are identified from the data. The seasonal spectral distributions of vertical wavelengths, periods, and vertical phase speeds in summer, winter, and spring/fall are found obeying a lognormal distribution. Both the downward and upward phase progression gravity waves are observed by the lidar, and the fractions of gravity waves with downward phase progression increase from summer ~59% to winter ~70%.

Persistent, dominant, and large-amplitude gravity waves with 3–10 h periods and vertical wavelengths ~20–30 km are observed in temperatures from the stratosphere to lower thermosphere with an Fe Boltzmann lidar at McMurdo, Antarctica. These waves exhibit characteristics of inertia-gravity waves in case studies, yet they are extremely persistent and have been present during every lidar observation. We characterize these 3–10 h waves in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere using lidar temperature data in June from 2011 to 2015. A new method is applied to identify the major wave events from every lidar run longer than 12 h. A continuous 65 h lidar run on 28–30 June 2014 exhibits a 7.5 h wave spanning ~60 h, and 6.5 h and 3.4 h waves spanning 40 and 45 h, respectively. Over the course of 5 years, 323 h of data in June reveal that the major wave periods occur in several groups centered from ~3.5 to 7.5 h, with vertical phase speeds of 0.8–2 m/s. These 3–10 h waves possess more than half of the spectral energy for ~93% of the time. A rigorous prewhitening, postcoloring technique is introduced for frequency power spectra investigation. The resulting spectral slopes are unusually steep (−2.7) below ~100 km but gradually become shallower with increasing altitude, reaching about −1.6 at 110 km. Two-dimensional fast Fourier transform spectra confirm that these waves have a uniform dominant vertical wavelength of 20–30 km across periods of 3.5–10 h. These statistical features shed light on the wave source and pave the way for future research.

The precision of lidar measurements is limited by noise associated with the optical detection process. Photon noise also introduces biases in the second-order statistics of the data, such as the variances and fluxes of the measured temperature, wind, and species variations, and establishes noise floors in the computed fluctuation spectra. When the signal-to-noise ratio is low, these biases and noise floors can completely obscure the atmospheric processes being observed. We describe a novel data processing technique for eliminating the biases and noise floors. The technique involves acquiring two statistically independent datasets, covering the same altitude range and time period, from which the various second-order statistics are computed. The efficacy of the technique is demonstrated using Na Doppler lidar observations of temperature in the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere acquired recently at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. The results show that this new technique enables observations of key atmospheric parameters in regions where the signal-to-noise ratio is far too low to apply conventional processing approaches.

We report the first lidar observations of thermospheric Na layers up to 170 km at Lijiang (geomagnetic 21.6°N, 171.8°E), China, in March, April, and December 2012. The Na densities inside the layers are low, ranging from ~1 to ~6 cm−3 at altitudes of 130–170 km, about 3 orders of magnitude lower than the Na peak density in the mesopause region. All of these layers exhibit an apparent downward phase progression with a descending rate of 11–12 km/h or ~3 m/s, consistent with the vertical phase speed of semidiurnal tides around 140 km. We have identified at least 12 events from the total 37 nights of lidar observations with four shown in this report, giving an occurrence frequency of ~33% over Lijiang. These thermospheric layer events correspond to strong to moderate equatorial fountain effects, bolstering our hypothesis that the deposit of metallic ions from the equatorial region to low latitudes via the fountain effect provides the Na+ ions in the thermosphere over Lijiang. Adopting the theory by Chu et al. (2011) and the hypothesis by Tsuda et al. (2015), we further hypothesize that the thermospheric Na layers are formed through the neutralization of the tidal-wind-shear-converged Na+ layers via direct electron-Na+ recombination Na+ + e− → Na + hν. An envelope calculation using reasonable ion and electron densities shows good consistency with the observations.

We report a thermospheric Na layer event (up to 140 km) observed by lidar in the night of 23–24 September 2000 at Syowa (69.0°S, 39.6°E), Antarctica. The thermospheric Na number densities were 2–9 cm−3 at 110–140 km, 3 orders of magnitude smaller than the peak density of the normal layer at 80–110 km. The thermospheric Na layers exhibited a wave-like structure with a period of 1–2 h. The colocated ionospheric/auroral observations showed sporadic E layers over Syowa through the night and an enhancement of the ionospheric/auroral activity around south side of Syowa at the event beginning. Adopting the theory by Chu et al. (2011), we hypothesize that the thermospheric Na layers are neutralized from converged Na+ layers. An envelope calculation shows good consistency with the observations.

We report the first characterization of potential energy densities and vertical wave number spectra of Antarctic gravity waves (GWs) from 35 to 105 km, derived from Fe lidar temperature measurements at McMurdo (77.8°S, 166.7°E) in 2011–2013 winters. For GWs with periods of 2–10 h, the potential energy density per unit volume (Epv) decreases by 2 orders of magnitude from 35 to 105 km, while that per unit mass (Epm) increases from several to hundreds of J/kg. Epm increases with a mean scale height of ~10.4 km in the Rayleigh region (35–65 km) and of ~13.2 km in the Fe region (81–105 km), and of particular interest is the inferred severe dissipation in between (65–81 km). Overall, the vertical evolutions of Epv and Epm indicate considerable wave energy loss from the stratosphere to the lower thermosphere. The vertical wave number spectra exhibit power law forms for vertical wavelengths λz 10 km in 35–60 km. PSDs increase by 1 order of magnitude from the stratosphere to the lower thermosphere. Using higher temporal resolution data to include 0.5–2 h waves increase Epm by ~25–45% and increase PSDs of 2–5 km waves by a factor of 2 and of >10 km waves by less than 50%.

Four years of lidar observations at McMurdo reveal that the fast amplitude growth with altitude of diurnal temperature tides from 100 to 110 km during Antarctic winters, exceeding that of the freely propagating tides from the lower atmosphere, increases in strength with the Kp magnetic activity index. Simulations with the Coupled Thermosphere Ionosphere Plasmasphere Electrodynamics (CTIPe) model reproduce the lidar observations and exhibit concentric ring structures of diurnal amplitudes encircling the south geomagnetic pole and overlapping the auroral zone. These findings point to a magnetospheric source origin. Mechanistic studies using CTIPe show that the adiabatic cooling/heating associated with Hall ion drag is the dominant source of this feature, while Joule heating is a minor contributor due to the counteraction by Joule-heating-induced adiabatic cooling. The sum of total dynamical effects and Joule heating explains ~80% of the diurnal amplitudes. Auroral particle heating, lower atmosphere tides, and direct solar heating have minor contributions.

The downward fluxes of Fe and Na, measured near the mesopause with the University of Colorado lidars near Boulder, and a chemical ablation model developed at the University of Leeds, are used to constrain the velocity/mass distribution of the meteoroids entering the atmosphere and to derive an improved estimate for the global influx of cosmic dust. We find that the particles responsible for injecting a large fraction of the ablated material into the Earth's upper atmosphere enter at relatively slow speeds and originate primarily from the Jupiter Family of Comets. The global mean Na influx is 17,200 ± 2800 atoms/cm2/s, which equals 298 ± 47 kg/d for the global input of Na vapor and 150 ± 38 t/d for the global influx of cosmic dust. The global mean Fe influx is 102,000 ± 18,000 atoms/cm2/s, which equals 4.29 ± 0.75 t/d for the global input of Fe vapor.

Five years of Fe Boltzmann lidar's Rayleigh temperature data from 2011 to 2015 at McMurdo are used to characterize gravity wave potential energy mass density (E pm), potential energy volume density (E pv), vertical wave number spectra, and static stability N 2 in the stratosphere 30–50 km. E pm (E pv) profiles increase (decrease) with altitude, and the scale heights of E pv indicate stronger wave dissipation in winter than in summer. Altitude mean E¯pm and E¯pv obey lognormal distributions and possess narrowly clustered small values in summer but widely spread large values in winter. E¯pm and E¯pv vary significantly from observation to observation but exhibit repeated seasonal patterns with summer minima and winter maxima. The winter maxima in 2012 and 2015 are higher than in other years, indicating interannual variations. Altitude mean N2¯ varies by ~30–40% from the midwinter maxima to minima around October and exhibits a nearly bimodal distribution. Monthly mean vertical wave number power spectral density for vertical wavelengths of 5–20 km increases from summer to winter. Using Modern Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications version 2 data, we find that large values of E¯pm during wintertime occur when McMurdo is well inside the polar vortex. Monthly mean E¯pm are anticorrelated with wind rotation angles but positively correlated with wind speeds at 3 and 30 km. Corresponding correlation coefficients are −0.62, +0.87, and +0.80, respectively. Results indicate that the summer‐winter asymmetry of E¯pm is mainly caused by critical level filtering that dissipates most gravity waves in summer. E¯pm variations in winter are mainly due to variations of gravity wave generation in the troposphere and stratosphere and Doppler shifting by the mean stratospheric winds., Key Points First lidar observations of repeated seasonal patterns of stratospheric gravity wave potential energy density and stability N 2 were made in Antarctica Epm obey lognormal distributions, show more severe wave dissipation in winter, and the largest Epm occurs when McMurdo is well inside polar vortex Epm summer‐winter asymmetry is mainly caused by critical level filtering, and wind speeds strongly affect the Epm variations in winter

We provide the first characterization of diurnal and semidiurnal thermal tides in temperature from 30 to 110 km in the winter season (May through August) at McMurdo (77.8°S, 166.7°E), Antarctica. The observations were made with an Fe Boltzmann temperature lidar in 2011 and 2012. Over 330 h of winter data are compiled into a composite day of temperature perturbations that significantly reduce the incoherent wave effects while preserving the coherent tidal signatures. Both diurnal and semidiurnal tides have small amplitudes (less than 3 K) below 100 km with vertical wavelengths of ~29 and ~23 km, respectively. A new finding of this study is the fast growth of diurnal and semidiurnal tidal amplitudes above 100 km to at least 15 K near 110 km, exceeding that of the freely propagating tides originating from the lower atmosphere. Such fast growth exists for all Kp index cases and diurnal amplitude increases to 15–30 K at 110 km with larger Kp indices corresponding to larger tidal amplitudes and faster growth rates. The slopes of diurnal tidal phases become steeper above 100 km, and the tidal phases barely change with altitude from 100 to 106 km. The tidal growth behavior is reproduced in the Whole Atmosphere Model (WAM) with phases comparable to the observations but magnitudes significantly underestimated. WAM compares reasonably well with the observations below 100 km. The observed significant amplitude increases and phase structure changes suggest additional tidal sources near or above 100 km, which deserve future investigation.

We report on the first observation of a descending layer of atomic potassium (K) in the thermosphere. This observation was made with the K Doppler lidar at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico (18.35°N; 66.75°W) on 12 March 2005. The layer was first observed before 08:00 UT (04:00 AST) centered near 145 km with the vertical extent up to ∼155 km, and then it descended to near 126 km just over 2 h later at dawn. The descent rate of 2.56±0.38 m/s matches the vertical phase speed of the GSWM09-computed semidiurnal tide between 120 and 150 km. This also matches the descent rates of the thermospheric semidiurnal tides measured at Arecibo. Although the K density above 120 km remains less than 1 cm −3 , its presence is unequivocal and has strong similarities to the neutral iron (Fe) layers in the thermosphere over 155 km recently discovered by lidar observations at McMurdo, Antarctica. The thermospheric K layer is plausibly explained by radiative electron recombination with K + within a tidal ion layer, which descends with the downward phase progression of the semidiurnal tide. Based on the production rate of K atoms and using current knowledge of tidal ion layer composition, we calculate an electron density of near 5×10 4 cm −3 and K + concentration of 650 cm −3 at 135 km immediately prior to the layer formation. This discovery of a thermospheric K layer, coupled with the McMurdo discovery of similar Fe layers, may lead to a new approach to studying the thermosphere in the altitude range of ∼100–150 km with resonance fluorescence lidars.

[1] This study presents the first report of planetary wave (PW) influences on significant temperature perturbations (10–20 K) within a course of one day detected by an Fe lidar from 35 to 51 km in the austral winter of 2011 at McMurdo (77.8°S, 166.7°E), Antarctica. Such large temperature perturbations are captured in the Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) data and correspond to various phases of eastward propagating PWs with periods of 1–5 days as revealed in MERRA. The strongest PW dominating the temperature perturbations has a period of 4–5 days with wavenumber −1. A 2−day wave with wavenumber −2 and a 1.25−day wave with wavenumber −3 also have significant influences. We find that these eastward propagating PWs are highly confined to winter high latitudes, likely because negative refractive indices equatorward of ~45°S result in evanescent wave characteristics and prevent the PWs from propagating to lower latitudes. The Eliassen-Palm flux divergence and instability analyses suggest that barotropic/baroclinic instability at 50°S–60°S induced by the stratospheric polar night jet and/or the “double-jet” structure is the most likely wave source. Such instability in the region poleward of 70°S is a complementary source for the 4−day wave, where we find that the heat flux of the 4−day wave is large and transported from ~70°S toward the pole above 40 km. This transport direction is likely linked to the meridional gradient of background temperature. The migrating diurnal tide near 78°S in the upper stratosphere is discernable, but significantly smaller than that of the dominant 4−day wave.

[1] Simultaneous and common-volume observations of Fe density, Na density, and temperatures in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere were made for 12 nights with an Fe Boltzmann lidar and a Na Doppler lidar at the Table Mountain Lidar Facility (40.13°N, 105.24°W) near Boulder, Colorado, in August and September 2010. We derive the correlations among temporal variations of Fe/Na densities and temperatures, eliminating the covariance bias via computing the cross correlations between Fe (Na) density and Na (Fe) temperature perturbations. The Fe-Na density correlation is positive below the Fe layer peak and above the Na peak where the Fe/Na density gradients have the same signs but becomes negative in between the Fe and Na peaks where the gradients are opposite. The large correlation between temperature and density fluctuations is positive on the layer bottomside but negative on the topside with the transitions occurring near the layer peaks. The relative Fe/Na variances reach minimum near the layer peaks but rapidly increase and exceed the relative temperature variance significantly toward edges. These observations can be largely reproduced by theoretically modeling the metal layer responses to the wave-induced perturbations only through dynamic processes with a Gaussian stationary density distribution. These results suggest that the dynamic effects (mainly the vertical displacement) induced by gravity waves or tides dominate the observed short-term density and temperature variations over a night. We explain the Fe/Na gradient difference observed at the bottomside via the chemical “shelf” around 80 km for reactive chemicals and the Fe/Na layer height difference.

[1] This study presents the first coincident observation of inertia-gravity waves (IGWs) by lidar and radar in the Antarctic mesopause region. This is also the first known observation of two simultaneous IGWs at the same location. An Fe Boltzmann lidar at Arrival Heights (77.8°S, 166.7°E) provides high-resolution temperature data, and a co-located MF radar provides wind data. On 29 June 2011, coherent wave structures are observed in both the Fe lidar temperature and MF radar winds. Two dominant waves are determined from the temperature data with apparent periods of 7.7 ± 0.2 and 5.0 ± 0.1 h and vertical wavelengths of 22 ± 2 and 23 ± 2 km, respectively. The simultaneous measurements of temperature and wind allow the intrinsic wave properties to be derived from hodograph analyses unambiguously. The analysis shows that the longer-period wave propagates northward with an azimuth of θ = 11° ± 5° clockwise from north. This wave has a horizontal wavelength of λh = 2.2 ± 0.2 × 103 km and an intrinsic period of τI = 7.9 ± 0.3 h. The intrinsic horizontal phase speed (CIh) for this wave is 80 ± 4 m/s, while the horizontal and vertical group velocities (Cgh and Cgz) are 48 ± 3 m/s and 0.5 ± 0.1 m/s, respectively. The shorter-period wave has τI = 4.5 ± 0.3 h and θ = 100° ± 4° with λh = 1.1 ± 0.1 × 103 km and CIh = 68 ± 5 m/s. Its group velocities are Cgh = 58 ± 5 m/s and Cgz = 1.1 ± 0.1 m/s. Therefore, both waves propagate with very shallow elevation angles from the horizon (ϕ = 0.6° ± 0.1° and ϕ = 1.1° ± 0.1° for the longer- and shorter-period waves, respectively) but originate from different sources. Our analysis suggests that the longer-period IGW most likely originates from the stratosphere in a region of unbalanced flow.

A receiver employing a field-widened Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is investigated for extending the wind measurement range of a narrow-band Fe Doppler lidar operating at 372 nm from its existing measurement range in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) down to near the ground. This design uses the multiple transmitted frequencies available from the base Fe Doppler lidar in combination with a novel MZI receiver to make a measurement of the Doppler shift that rejects the influence of atmospheric parameters such as the aerosol backscatter ratio, temperature, and pressure of the lidar volume and receiver parameters such as the geometric overlap, the chopper function, and any other factor affecting the proportion of the signal in both channels of the MZI equally. A ratio is constructed from the three frequencies and two channels of the interferometer that exhibits a measurement performance of 1.75 times the Cramer-Rao lower bound, which is comparable to the dual MZI (DMZ) while preserving the insensitivity to backscatter spectrum of the quad MZI (QMZ). In addition, we show how the use of multiple transmitted frequencies can yield a wind measurement wherein the accuracy is insensitive to the optical imperfection and misalignment of the MZI or any other factor that affects the contrast, though the precision is still impacted by the fringe contrast. Simply adding a second surface mirror of a particular thickness to the basic tilted MZI can allow the field of the MZI to be widened sufficiently for most resonance Doppler lidar receivers in operation today. Provided that the detection sensitivity in each channel is known, the original resonance fluorescence and Rayleigh scattering signals can be recovered by simply scaling and adding the contributions from both channels. Consequently, the wind and temperature from the MLT region and the temperature from the Rayleigh region can be derived alongside the Rayleigh Doppler wind measurement without compromising the measurement precision. Using actual data obtained recently from a Major Research Instrumentation Fe Doppler lidar, we show the expected measurement performance and some potential scientific avenues for this embodiment of a "whole-atmosphere" lidar system.

A receiver employing a field-widened Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is investigated for extending the wind measurement range of a narrowband Fe Doppler (372 nm) lidar from its existing measurement range in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) down to the ground. This design uses the multiple transmitted frequencies available from the base Fe Doppler lidar in combination with an MZI receiver to make a measurement of the Doppler shift from Rayleigh-Mie scattering that is independent of aerosol backscatter ratio, temperature and pressure of the lidar volume and also independent of geometric overlap, the chopper function and any other factor affecting the signal in both MZI channels equally. A ratio is constructed from the three frequencies and two channels of the interferometer that exhibits a measurement performance of 1.75 times the Cramer-Rao lower bound, which is comparable to the dual MZI (DMZ) while preserving the insensitivity to backscatter spectrum of the quad MZI (QMZ). Using actual data obtained recently from the Fe Doppler lidar, we show the expected measurement performance of this whole atmosphere lidar instrument concept.

A method is proposed for determining the optimal temperature and magnetic field strength used to condition a sodium vapor cell for use in a sodium Double-Edge Magneto-Optic Filter (Na-DEMOF). The desirable characteristics of these filters are first defined and then analyzed over a range of temperatures and magnetic field strengths, using an IDL Faraday filter simulation adapted for the Na-DEMOF. This simulation is then compared to real behavior of a Na-DEMOF constructed for use with the Chu Research Group’s STAR Na Doppler resonance-fluorescence lidar for lower atmospheric observations.

We present the first coordinated study of a 1-h mesoscale gravity wave event detected simultaneously by a Na Doppler lidar at Boulder, CO (40.1°N, 105.2°W), and a Na Doppler lidar and an airglow temperature mapper (AMTM) at Logan, UT (41.7°N, 111.8°W) in the mesopause region on 27 Nov. 2013. The vertical and horizontal wavelengths are ~16.0±0.3 and 342.0±10.4 km, corresponding to vertical and horizontal phase speeds of ~4.4±0.1 and 95.0±3.0 m/s, respectively. The wave propagates from Logan to Boulder with an azimuth angle of ~138.1±1.7° clockwise from North. A uniqueness of this study is that the 1-h wave amplitudes on vertical winds have been quantified for the first time by the STAR Na lidar at Boulder. The GW polarization relation between vertical wind and temperature is evaluated. The intrinsic period of the wave is Doppler shifted to ~100 min by a background wind of 40 m/s, which is confirmed by USU lidar wind observations. This study illustrates a great potential of combining multiple instruments to fully characterize mesoscale gravity waves and inspect their intrinsic properties

McMurdo station (77.8°S, 166.7°E), locating at the poleward edge of the auroral oval, provides great opportunities for researchers to study the interactions among neutral atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetosphere. More than four years of valuable data have been collected, leading to several new discoveries from the McMurdo lidar campaign. Presented here are the winter temperature tides and their responses to the magnetospheric sources. Winter temperature structures from the lidar observations are also presented for this high southern latitude.