Gravity waves and wind-shear in the MLT at 23°S

We have used the technique suggested by Hocking [Hocking, W. A new approach to momentum flux determinations using SKiYMET meteor radars. Ann. Geophys. 23, 2005.] to derive short period wind variances in the 80–100 km region from meteor radar data. We find that these fluctuating winds, assumed to correspond to gravity waves and turbulence, are closely correlated with the vertical shear of the horizontal tidal winds. This close correlation suggests that in situ wind shear may be a major source of gravity waves and turbulence in the MLT. If this is the case, gravity waves generated in the troposphere and propagating up to the MLT region, generally assumed to constitute an important influence on the climatology of the region, may be a less important source of energy and momentum in the 80–100 km region than has been hitherto believed.     

Sodium lidar measurements of mesopause region temperatures at 23° S

A sodium lidar, capable of measuring temperature in the 80–100 km region, has been in operation at São José dos Campos (23° S, 46 W) since March 2007. Good quality data have been obtained for late autumn, winter and spring, but weather conditions make it extremely difficult to make measurements from mid-November to mid- February. We find the temperature structure to be strongly modulated by tides and gravity waves, but average profiles typically show a primary mesopause height close to 100 km with temperatures around 180 K, and a tendency for a secondary minimum of about 185 K to occur close to 90 km. Vertical temperature gradients greater than 50 K/km are sometimes seen even on profiles averaged over several hours. The strongest gradients are always positive and are frequently associated with strong gradients in sodium concentration. On the other hand, we frequently see rapid changes in the temperature profile, suggesting that models and non-local temperature measurements, as made by satellite radiometers, for example, are of little use in applications such as the analysis of gravity wave propagation seen in airglow images.     

Sporadic sodium layers and the average vertical distribution of atmospheric sodium: Comparison of different Nas layer strengths

In an earlier study of sporadic sodium layers (Na_s) [Simonich, D.M., Clemesha B.R., Batista, P.P. Sporadic layers and the vertical distribution of atmospheric sodium. Adv. Space Res. 35, 1976–1980, 2005], observed by lidar at São José do Campos (23°S, 46°W) we found that, although individual profiles give the impression that Na_s layers involve sodium additional to the normal background layer, there is very little difference between the long-term averages of profiles with and without the presence of Na_s. This led us to conclude that Na_s layers result from the redistribution of an omnipresent source, rather than an additional source mechanism. We have now extended this study to investigate whether or not the relative magnitude of Na_s layers influences this conclusion. To this end we manually characterized all the profiles obtained in the time interval from 1900 to 2200 LT for the years 1993–2004. This involved registering the upper and lower limits to each Na_s layer observed, the height of the peak and the sodium concentration at each of these three points. We then computed average profiles for Na_s layers of differing strengths, with strength defined as the concentration at the peak divided by the mean of the concentrations at the upper and lower boundaries. For strengths up to 4 the results confirmed our earlier conclusion but for Na_s layer strengths greater than 4 we found a significant difference between the average profiles with and without Na_s. For the strong Na_s layers both the average abundance and the average peak sodium concentration were about 10% greater than for layers without Na_s. This leads to the possibility that a different mechanism might be responsible for very stronger sporadic layers although we do not think this very likely.