CEDAR: Improved Continuing Lidar Observation and Geophysical Study of the Mesopause Region

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The investigators continue their observations of temperature and sodium density in the mesopause region with a wind/temperature lidar. They are improving the lidar's accuracy and robustness with a daytime and wind capability, with enough data in three years to reveal seasonal variations of the data. In addition to exploring climatology and trends, this long data set reveals information on variability from climatological mean, tidal and gravity waves, heat flux, horizontal winds, and temperature-sodium density correlation. Continually collected, analyzed data can provide interesting results with the lidar. For instance, plotting monthly mean temperatures at each altitude over seven years, investigators observed a 3-4 year warming trend (peaking in 1993), believed to be the first evidence of Pinatubo impacting the atmosphere as high as 100 kilometers.