Publication Date:
2016-06-22
Description:
Ground-based spectrometers have been deployed to measure the concentration, velocity, and temperature of ozone in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT), using low-cost satellite television electronics to observe the 11.072-GHz line of ozone. The ozone line was observed at an altitude near 95 km at 38°N, 71°W using three spectrometers located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Haystack Observatory (Westford, Massachusetts), Chelmsford High School (Chelmsford, Massachusetts), and Union College (Schenectady, New York), each pointed south at 8° elevation. Observations from 2009 through 2014 were used to derive the nightly averaged seasonal variation of the 95-km altitude meridional wind velocity, as well as the seasonally averaged variation of the meridional wind with local solar time. The results indicate a seasonal trend in which the winds at 95 km are directed southward at about 10 m s−1 in the summer of the Northern Hemisphere and northward at about 10 m s−1 in the winter. Nighttime data from −5 to +5 local solar time show a gradual transition of the meridional wind velocity from about −20 to 20 m s−1. These variations correlate well with nighttime wind measurements using 557.7-nm optical airglow observations from the Millstone Hill high-resolution Fábry–Perot interferometer (FPI) in Westford.
Print ISSN:
0739-0572
Electronic ISSN:
1520-0426
Topics:
Geography
,
Geosciences
,
Physics
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