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

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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.