Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Eastward-Propagating Planetary Waves In The Middle Atmosphere During Major Sudden Stratospheric Warming Events, Christian Todd Rhodes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper: Remote Sensing Of The Nighttime Oh Layer During The Deepwave Campaign, Pattilyn Mclaughlin

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper [AMTM] is a remote sensing instrument developed at Utah State University to map temperature structures in the hydroxyl airglow emission at ~87 km. These maps can then be used to quantify wave field characteristics and to observe general climatology trends. Two recent campaigns that it has been involved with are the DEEPWAVE campaign in Lauder, New Zealand and the Super Soaker campaign in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The Deep Propagating Gravity Wave Experiment, “DEEPWAVE” was an international measurement and modeling program intended to characterize the generation and propagation of a broad range of atmospheric gravity waves with …

Design And Characterization Of A Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometer For Composition Measurements In The Upper Atmosphere, E. Addison Everett

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The mesosphere/lower thermosphere (MLT) is perhaps the least understood region of Earth's atmosphere. Too high for balloons and winged aircraft, yet too low for satellites, direct access to the MLT to make in-situ measurements is via high-speed sounding rockets for brief periods of at most a few minutes. Mass spectrometers have previously been used to make composition measurements in this region. But, mass spectrometry in the MLT is difficult, mainly due to the ambient pressures here and also the high speeds and short flight durations of sounding rocket missions. Time-of-flight mass spectrometers (TOF-MS) are capable of making fast, accurate measurements …

Dynamical Processes Of Gravity Waves Propagation And Dissipation, And Statistical Characteristics Of Their Momentum Flux In The Mesosphere And Lower Thermosphere, Bing Cao

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) (⇠80–110 km) is dominated by abundant atmospheric waves, of which gravity waves are one of the least understood due to large varieties in wave characteristics as well as potential sources. Gravity waves play an important role in the atmosphere by influencing the thermal balance and helping to drive the global circulation. But due to their sub-grid scale, the effects of gravity waves in General Circulation Models (GCMs) are mostly parameterized. The investigations of gravity waves in this dissertation are from two perspectives: the dynamical processes of gravity wave propagation and dissipation in the MLT …

Investigation Of Mountain Waves In The Mesosphere Over The Andes Mountains, Jaime Aguilar Guerrero

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

An image processing algorithm has been developed to analyze data from a NIR All-Sky Imager of OH airglow emission (from about 87 km altitude), located in the Andes, with the purpose of investigating the atmospheric gravity waves generated when low level wind blows over the high mountains (referred to as Mountain Waves). These types of waves are a special case of atmospheric gravity waves, which carry significant momentum and exert strong forcing to the background upper atmosphere. The imager is located at the Andes Lidar Observatory (ALO) at Cerro Pachón, Chile (30°S, 71°W), which also houses a Na Doppler Lidar …

Langmuir Probe Instrument Suite For Mesosphere Turbulence Experiment Mission, Adam Blake

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The Langmuir probe technique is the predominant in-situ plasma diagnostic technique, and is arguably the only measurement technique that is universally own on every sounding rocket investigation. Earth's mesosphere region (80-120 km) is a host of many dynamic phenomena such as the noctilucent clouds, breaking gravity waves, inversion layers, settlement of mesospheric smoke particles, etc. As such it is critical to have a comprehensive suite of plasma diagnostics that can unambiguously measure various plasma parameters.

This thesis deals with the development and testing of three different Langmuir probe implementations suitable for investigation of the mesosphere which are to be launched …

Long-Range Propagation, Interaction, And Dissipation Of Small-Scale Gravity Waves In The Mesosphere And Lower Thermosphere, Christopher J. Heale

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

A 2-D nonlinear, compressible numerical model [Snively and Pasko, 2008] is used in conjunction with ray-theory to investigate the long-range propagation, dissipation and interaction of small-scale gravity waves in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere (MLT) region. The research in this thesis is made up of three distinct studies which build upon each other. The first investigates the thermospheric dissipation of three gravity wave packets representing: (1) A quasi-monochromatic packet, (2) A monochromatic, steady state wave, and (3) A spectrally broad packet, as well as an initial condition specified packet. It is found that dissipation due to molecular viscosity and …

Statistical Analysis Of The Usu Lidar Data Set With Reference To Mesospheric Solar Response And Cooling Rate Calculation, With Analysis Of Statistical Issues Affecting The Regression Coefficients, Troy Alden Wynn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Though the least squares technique has many advantages, its possible limitations as applied in the atmospheric sciences have not yet been fully explored in the literature. The assumption that the atmosphere responds either in phase or out of phase to the solar input is ubiquitous. However, our analysis found this assumption to be incorrect. If not properly addressed, the possible consequences are bias in the linear trend coefficient and attenuation of the solar response coefficient.

Using USU Rayleigh lidar temperature data, we found a significant phase offset to the solar input in the temperatures that varies ±5 years depending on …

Rayleigh-Lidar Observations Of Mesospheric Gravity Wave Activity Above Logan, Utah, Durga N. Kafle

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A Rayleigh-scatter lidar operated from Utah State University (41.7°N, 111.8°W) for a period spanning 11 years ― 1993 through 2004. Of the 900 nights observed, data on 150 extended to 90 km or above. They were the ones used in these studies related to atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) between 45 and 90 km. This is the first study of AGWs with an extensive data set that spans the whole mesosphere. Using the temperature and temperature gradient profiles, we produced a climatology of the Brunt-Väisälä (buoyancy) angular frequency squared, N² (rad/s)². The minimum and maximum values of N …

Planetary Wave Activity Observed In Polar Mesospheric Clouds, David A. Mackler

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

In this paper, the Solar Backscatter UV spectrometer (SBUV) Polar Mesospheric Cloud (PMC) dataset was investigated for planetary wave activity following the earlier study by Merkel [2002]. To counter the sparse nature of the data, four separate methods of analysis are used in determining if planetary waves are present and how they effect PMC formation. The four methods are histograms (both in frequency of occurrence and mean albedo), periodograms using the Lomb-Scargle method, frequency-wavenumber analysis using a 2D Lomb-Scargle method from Wu et. al [1995], and a temporal (yearly) analysis of the 5, 6.5, and 10 day wave amplitudes. The …

Investigation Of Gravity Waves Via The Rotational Temperature Of Hydroxyl Nightglow, Erin C. Willingham

Theses and Dissertations

Measurement of the vibration and rotation bands of mesospheric hydroxyl radicals (OH) has been conducted during the past two decades using ground-based and space-based interferometers to take temperature and wind measurements from 70-100km in altitude. Gravity waves that pass through the mesosphere can be measured by determining the variance over time of the rotational temperature of the OH emissions. Several attempts were made to take spectrum measurements of the nightglow from hydroxyl radicals in the mesosphere using a custom hardware configuration that included a telescope and grating monochrometer optimized for the visible and near infrared. Quantifying gravity wave activity was …