Collaborative Research: CEDAR--Airglow Imaging of Gravity Wave and Instability Dynamics

湍流结构过程发生在整个大气、海洋和其他地球物理等离子体和流体中。它们的影响范围从能量的传输和耗散到形成视觉上引人注目的结构，类似于海浪破碎时形成的结构。这项工作将通过探索大气结构的高分辨率成像观测来解决长期存在的大气湍流问题。大气不稳定过程被认为是大气结构形成和破坏的原因，这些结构被观察为夜间中间层-低热层（MLT）区域中原子和分子发出的微弱光发射，称为气辉。该项目将利用智利安第斯山脉激光雷达观测站最新的航空航天红外照相机2（AIC 2）成像仪，辅之以该观测站的中间层温度成像仪（MTM）、Na激光雷达和流星雷达。该项目将更好地了解被认为是形成湍流结构的原因的大气不稳定过程。这些结构在能量和动量的垂直传输中起着重要作用。这项研究将为社区提供新的数据集，并提高观察关键MLT地区小规模过程的能力。该项目还将通过支持一名研究生来促进教育，并通过支持女科学家来促进扩大参与。研究的目标是：（1）获得AIC 2图像的大气结构的像素大小为30米，以表征不稳定性的演变，（2）获得相关的测量由MTM气辉温度成像仪在两个高度，以确定波和不稳定性的功能，（3）利用钠激光雷达和流星雷达测量，以表征背景大气条件。这项工作将包括（1）结合来自AIC 2、MTM、Na激光雷达和流星雷达的数据，（2）识别表现出小尺度瞬态响应的事件，（3）分析识别出的事件以估计不稳定尺度。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Turbulent structuring processes occur throughout the atmosphere, oceans, and other geophysical plasmas and fluids. Their effects range from transport and dissipation of energy to formation of visually striking structures similar to those formed when ocean waves break. This work will address a long-standing problem of atmospheric turbulence by exploring high-resolution imaging observations of atmospheric structures. Atmospheric instability processes are thought to be responsible for formation and breaking of atmospheric structures observed as faint optical emissions emitted by atoms and molecules in the mesosphere-lower-thermosphere (MLT) region during the night called airglow. This project will utilize the new state-of-the-art Aerospace Infrared Camera 2 (AIC2) imager at the Andes Lidar Observatory (ALO) in Chile complemented by the Mesosphere Temperature Mapper (MTM), the Na lidar, and meteor radar at ALO. This project will develop better understanding of the atmospheric instability processes that are thought to be responsible for formation of turbulent structures. These structures play a major role in vertical transports of energy and momentum. This research will provide new datasets to the community and improve the ability to observe small-scale processes in the critical MLT region. This project will also promote education by supporting a graduate student and contribute to broadening participation by supporting female scientists. The goals of the research are (1) to obtain AIC2 imaging of atmospheric structures down to pixel size of 30 m to characterize instability evolution, (2) to obtain correlative measurements by the MTM airglow temperature imager at two altitudes to determine wave and instability features, (3) to utilize the Na lidar and meteor radar measurements to characterize background atmospheric conditions. The work will involve (1) combining data from AIC2, MTM, Na lidar, and meteor radar, (2) identification of events that exhibit small-scale transient responses, and (3) analysis of the identified events to estimate instability scales.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.