Southern Hemisphere Mid-Latitude Neutral Upper Atmospheric Dynamics and Thermodynamics

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This proposal requests support for the U.S. involvement in the operations of an optical high-resolution spectrometer at the University of Canterbury's Mount John Astronomical Observatory (44 S, South Island, New Zealand), and is part of the US/NZ Cooperative Science Program. Mount John is a member of the Austral Alliance, i.e. the Southern Hemisphere's international collaborative program for the investigation of the austral upper atmosphere, and includes optical and radar stations in New Zealand (Mount John and Birdlings Flat), Australia (Beveridge and Adelaide) and Antarctica (South Pole, Scott Base, Mawson, Davis, Syowa, Arrival Heights, and Halley Bay). Mount John is the only full-time optical experiment at Southern Hemisphere midlatitudes already in the process of investigating the long-term mesospheric, lower-thermospheric and ionosphere (MLTI) dynamics and thermodynamics. Further, when these proposed ground-based observations are combined with observations from satellite-borne experiments, as well as the results of both modeling and simulations, they will increase out understanding and knowledge of the Southern Hemisphere's upper atmosphere.