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Observations Of Overturning In The Upper Mesosphere And Lower Thermosphere, M. F. Larsen, Alan Z. Liu, C. S. Gardner, M. C. Kelley, S. Collins, J. Friedman, J. H. Hecht

Alan Z Liu

A number of observations of the sodium density primarily in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (but also of the electron density structure) have shown what appears to be overturning or convective roll cells near the transition from the mesosphere to the lower thermosphere. The cells are found in the region between 95 and 105 km and occur near the boundary between the region of lower stability in the mesosphere and the region of higher stability in the lower thermosphere. The vertical scale for the rolls is ~5–6 km, and the timescale is ~1–3 hours. The rolls occur in a region …