Fundamental Coupling Processes in the Mesosphere, Lower Thermosphere (MLT) Using Enhanced Na Wind-temperature Lidar Measurements at the Atmospheric Lidar Observatory

该奖项授予在北半球中纬度地区(犹他州洛根)运营钠激光雷达和瑞利激光雷达系统。这一组合激光雷达系统将用于开展相关研究，解决中间层和低热层(MLT)动力学方面的新挑战，并扩展正在进行的研究电离层等离子体与中性大气通过碰撞相互作用的相互作用的工作。该系统将能够以高垂直分辨率和时间步调测量三维风、中性温度和钠密度分布，温度分布范围为30至115公里，风廓线范围为80至105公里。当中性钠出现在较高的海拔时(可能是由于零星的层形成)，风和温度的观测可以延伸到较低的热层140公里。这一史无前例的垂直测量范围将首次允许对波进行研究，从波的起始区一直到波的消亡。该设施也将是培训年轻的光学工程物理学家的一种极好的手段，然后他们将非常适合学术界和工业研究的许多可能的职业道路。这项研究的主要科学目标包括以下目标：1.描述重力波(GW)在不同环境中的传播、折射、导流和能量和动量传输，例如MLT对平流层变暖的响应；2.GW不稳定动力学驱动能量和动量沉积、湍流、热量、动量和成分传输以及混合；3.了解GW与潮汐和行星波的相互作用，它们对这些场的影响，以及波谱随高度的演变；以及4.有助于更好地理解E区的离子-中性耦合。使用USU共振和瑞利激光雷达系统的研究将受益于位于洛根激光雷达站点附近的熊湖天文台目前和即将进行的测量能力。

TThis award is to operate a sodium and Rayleigh lidar systems in the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere (at Logan, Utah). This combined lidar system would be used to undertake correlative studies, addressing new challenges in mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) dynamics as well as extending ongoing work on the study of the interactions of the ionospheric plasma with the neutral atmosphere through collisional interactions. The systems would be capable of measuring three-dimensional wind, neutral temperature and sodium density profiles at high vertical resolution and temporal cadence with a temperature profile for the range from 30 to 115 km and a wind profile for the range from 80 to 105 km. When neutral Na is present at higher altitudes (possibly as a result of sporadic layer formations) the wind and temperature observations can then be extended up to ­140 km into the lower thermosphere. This unprecedented vertical measurement range will, for the first time, allow waves to be studied all the way from the region where they are initiated up to the region where they die out. The facility will also represent an excellent means of training young optical engineering physicists that would then be well suited for many possible career paths in academia and industrial research. The major scientific goals of the research include the following objectives: 1. characterization of gravity wave (GW) propagation, refraction, ducting, and energy and momentum transports in variable environments, e.g., MLT responses to stratospheric warmings, 2. quantification of GW instability dynamics driving energy and momentum deposition, turbulence, heat, momentum, and constituent transports, and mixing, 3. understanding the interactions of GWs with tides and planetary waves, their influences on these fields, and the evolution of the wave spectrum with altitude, and 4. contributing to an improved understanding of ion-neutral coupling in the E region. Studies employing the USU resonance and Rayleigh lidar systems will benefit from current and pending measurement capabilities at the Bear Lake Observatory located nearby the Logan lidar site.