HR: 1340h
AN: SA53A-1158    [Abstracts]
TI: Tidal Influences on Static Stability in the Mesopause Region over Fort Collins, Colorado
AU: * Collins, R L
EM: rlc@gi.alaska.edu
AF: Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 903 Koyukuk Drive, Fairbanks, AK 99775 United States
AU: She, C
EM: joeshe@lamar.colostate.edu
AF: Department of Physics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523 United States
AB: The impact of tides on the static stability of the mesopause region is investigated using temperature measurements made with the Colorado State University sodium lidar at Fort Collins, Colorado, USA (41N, 105W). During the latter half of September 2003, fair weather conditions facilitated the acquisition of an unusually long data set of 14-day duration. In this study we focus on nine days of continuous measurements from 0430 September 21 (day 264) and 2200 September 29 (day 272). The continuity of these observations, unlike single-night measurements, allows more robust separation of the solar tides, with periods greater than six hours, from smaller-scale gravity waves. The tides vary over this period, and we compare periods during the observations where the tides are the dominant variation in the observations and where they are not. We examine the influence of the tides, waves, and the combination of both tides and waves on the static stability of the mesopause region .
DE: 0341 Middle atmosphere: constituent transport and chemistry (3334)
DE: 0342 Middle atmosphere: energy deposition (3334)
DE: 3332 Mesospheric dynamics
DE: 3389 Tides and planetary waves
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005