scholarly journals Radar observations of long-term variability of mesosphere and lower thermosphere winds over Tirunelveli (8.7°N, 77.8°E)

2007 ◽  
Vol 112 (D23) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Sridharan ◽  
T. Tsuda ◽  
S. Gurubaran
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunter Stober ◽  
Ales Kuchar ◽  
Dimitry Pokhotelov ◽  
Huixin Liu ◽  
Han-Li Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract. Long-term and continuous observations of mesospheric/lower thermospheric winds are rare, but they are important to investigate climatological changes at these altitudes on time scales of several years, covering a solar cycle and longer. Such long time series are a natural heritage of the mesosphere/lower thermosphere climate, and they are valuable to compare climate models or long term runs of general circulation models (GCMs). Here we present a climatological comparison of wind observations from six meteor radars at two conjugate latitudes to validate the corresponding mean winds and atmospheric diurnal and semidiurnal tides from three GCMs, namely Ground-to-Topside Model of Atmosphere and Ionosphere for Aeronomy (GAIA), Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model Extension (Specified Dynamics) (WACCM-X(SD)) and Upper Atmosphere ICOsahedral Non-hydrostatic (UA-ICON) model. Our results indicate that there are interhemispheric differences in the seasonal characteristics of the diurnal and semidiurnal tide. There also are some differences in the mean wind climatologies of the models and the observations. Our results indicate that GAIA shows a reasonable agreement with the meteor radar observations during the winter season, whereas WACCM-X(SD) shows a better agreement with the radars for the hemispheric zonal summer wind reversal, which is more consistent with the meteor radar observations. The free running UA-ICON tends to show similar winds and tides compared to WACCM-X(SD).


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 851-875 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Wilhelm ◽  
Gunter Stober ◽  
Peter Brown

Abstract. We report on long-term observations of atmospheric parameters in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) made over the last 2 decades. Within this study, we show, based on meteor wind measurement, the long-term variability of winds, tides, and kinetic energy of planetary and gravity waves. These measurements were done between the years 2002 and 2018 for the high-latitude location of Andenes (69.3∘ N, 16∘ E) and the mid-latitude locations of Juliusruh (54.6∘ N, 13.4∘ E) and Tavistock (43.3∘ N, 80.8∘ W). While the climatologies for each location show a similar pattern, the locations differ strongly with respect to the altitude and season of several parameters. Our results show annual wind tendencies for Andenes which are toward the south and to the west, with changes of up to 3 m s−1 per decade, while the mid-latitude locations show smaller opposite tendencies to negligible changes. The diurnal tides show nearly no significant long-term changes, while changes for the semidiurnal tides differ regarding altitude. Andenes shows only during winter a tidal weakening above 90 km, while for the Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar (CMOR) an enhancement of the semidiurnal tides during the winter and a weakening during fall occur. Furthermore, the kinetic energy for planetary waves showed strong peak values during winters which also featured the occurrence of sudden stratospheric warming. The influence of the 11-year solar cycle on the winds and tides is presented. The amplitudes of the mean winds exhibit a significant amplitude response for the zonal component below 82 km during summer and from November to December between 84 and 95 km at Andenes and CMOR. The semidiurnal tides (SDTs) show a clear 11-year response at all locations, from October to November.


2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 1181-1187 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Beig

Abstract. In this paper a brief overview of the changes in atmospheric ion compositions driven by the human-induced changes in related neutral species, and temperature from the troposphere to lower thermosphere has been made. It is found that ionic compositions undergo significant variations. The variations calculated for the double-CO2 scenario are both long-term and permanent in nature. Major neutrals which take part in the lower and middle atmospheric ion chemical schemes and undergo significant changes due to anthropogenic activities are: O, O2, H2O, NO, acetonitrile, pyridinated compounds, acetone and aerosol. The concentration of positive ion/electron density does not change appreciably in the middle atmosphere but indicates a marginal decrease above about 75 km until about 85 km, above which the magnitude of negative trend decreases and becomes negligible at 93 km. Acetonitrile cluster ions in the upper stratosphere are likely to increase, whereas NO+ and NO+(H2O) in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) region are expected to decrease for the double CO2 scenario. It is also found that the atmospheric density of pyridinated cluster ions is fast rising in the troposphere.


2012 ◽  
Vol 117 (A10) ◽  
pp. n/a-n/a ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Venkateswara Rao ◽  
T. Tsuda ◽  
D. M. Riggin ◽  
S. Gurubaran ◽  
I. M. Reid ◽  
...  

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