Physics Commons^™

Comparison Of Coincident Rayleigh-Scatter And Sodium Resonance Lidar Temperature Measurements From The Mesosphere-Lower-Thermosphere Region, Leda Sox, Vincent B. Wickwar, Neal R. Criddle, Tao Yuan

All Physics Faculty Publications

There are relatively few instruments that have the capabilities to make near continuous measurements of the mesosphere-lower-thermosphere (MLT) region. Rayleigh scatter and resonance lidars, particularly sodium resonance lidar, have been the two dominant ground-based techniques for acquiring mesosphere and MLT vertical temperature profiles, respectively, for more than two decades. With these measurements, the dynamics (gravity waves, tides) and long-term temperature trends (upper atmosphere cooling) of the MLT region can be studied. The Utah State University (USU; 41.7º N, 111.8º W) campus hosts a unique upper atmospheric observatory which houses both a high-power, large-aperture Rayleigh lidar and a sodium resonance Doppler …

Comparison Of Coincident Rayleigh-Scatter And Sodium Resonance Lidar Temperature Measurements From The Mesosphere-Lower-Thermosphere Region, Leda Sox, Vincent B. Wickwar, Neal R. Criddle, Tao Yuan

All Physics Faculty Presentations

There are relatively few instruments that have the capabilities to make near continuous measurements of the mesosphere-lower-thermosphere (MLT) region. Rayleigh scatter and resonance lidars, particularly sodium resonance lidar, have been the two dominant ground-based techniques for acquiring mesosphere and MLT vertical temperature profiles, respectively, for more than two decades. With these measurements, the dynamics (gravity waves, tides) and long-term temperature trends (upper atmosphere cooling) of the MLT region can be studied. The Utah State University (USU; 41.7º N, 111.8º W) campus hosts a unique upper atmospheric observatory which houses both a high-power, large-aperture Rayleigh lidar and a sodium resonance Doppler …

Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Newsletter (Fall 2015), Cheryl Stevens, Dean

Ogden College of Science & Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Magnetohydrodynamic Modeling Of Three Van Allen Probes Storms In 2012 And 2013, J. Paral, M. K. Hudson, B. T. Kress, M. J. Wiltberger

Dartmouth Scholarship

Coronal mass ejection (CME)-shock compression of the dayside magnetopause has been observed to cause both prompt enhancement of radiation belt electron flux due to inward radial transport of electrons conserving their first adiabatic invariant and prompt losses which at times entirely eliminate the outer zone. Recent numerical studies suggest that enhanced ultra-low frequency (ULF) wave activity is necessary to explain electron losses deeper inside the magnetosphere than magnetopause incursion following CME-shock arrival. A combination of radial transport and magnetopause shadowing can account for losses observed at radial distances into L=4.5, well within the computed magnetopause location. We compare ULF wave …

Global Optimized Isothermal And Nonlinear Models Of Earth’S Standard Atmosphere, Nihad E. Daidzic, Ph.D.,

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Both, a global isothermal temperature model and a nonlinear quadratic temperature model of the ISA was developed and presented here. Constrained optimization techniques in conjunction with the least-square-root approximations were used to design best-fit isothermal models for ISA pressure and density changes up to 47 geopotential km for NLPAM, and 86 orthometric km for ISOAM respectively. The mass of the dry atmosphere and the relevant fractional-mass scale heights have been computed utilizing the very accurate eight-point Gauss-Legendre numerical quadrature for both ISOAM and NLPAM. Both, the ISOAM and the NLPAM represent viable alternatives to ISA in many practical applications and …

The Online System For Lidar Data Handling And Real Time Monitoring Of Lidar Operations At Alo-Usu, Luis Navarro Dominguez, Vincent B. Wickwar, Jose Gamboa, Marco Milla

Conference publications

t is no longer sufficient to use lidar, such as the Rayleigh lidar at the Atmospheric Lidar Observatory (ALO) at Utah State University (USU), to observe the middle atmosphere and reduce the data to geophysical parameters. Extended operations, with inevitable equipment, data reduction, and analysis improvements, require us to keep careful track of all these changes and how they affect the scientific products. Furthermore, many of the funding agencies and the journals now require us to do, at least, some of this. We have built three interconnected data structures to organize and manage the different hardware and software set- ups …

Early Temperatures Observed With The Extremely Sensitive Rayleigh Lidar At Utah State University, Vincent B. Wickwar, Leda Sox, Matthew T. Emerick, Joshua P. Herron, David L. Barton

Conference publications

Rayleigh-scatter lidar observations were made at the Atmospheric Lidar Observatory (ALO) at Utah State University (USU) from 1993–2004 from 45–90 km. The lidar operated at 532 nm with a power-aperture-product (PAP) of ~3.1 Wm2. The sensitivity of the lidar has since been increased by a factor of 66 to 205 Wm2, extending the maximum altitude into new territory, the lower thermosphere. Observations have been extended up to 115 km, almost to the 120 km goal. Early temperatures from four ~4-week periods starting in June 2014 are presented and discussed. They are compared to each other, to the ALO climatol

Conference …

Temperature Deviations In The Midlatitude Mesosphere During Stratospheric Warmings As Measured With Rayleigh-Scatter Lidar, Leda Sox, Vincent B. Wickwar, Chad Fish, Joshua P. Herron

Conference publications

While mesospheric temperature anomalies associated with Sudden Stratospheric Warmings (SSWs) have been observed extensively in the polar regions, observations of these anomalies at midlatitudes are sparse. The original Rayleigh-scatter lidar that operated at the Atmospheric Lidar Observatory (ALO; 41.7°N, 111.8°W) in the Center for Atmospheric and Space Sciences (CASS) on the campus of Utah State University (USU) collected an extensive set of temperature data for 11 years in the 45–90 km altitude range. This work focuses on the extensive Rayleigh lidar observations made during six major SSW events that occurred between 1993 and 2004, providing a climatological study of the …

Variations In Mesospheric Neutral Densities From Rayleigh Lidar Observations At Utah State University, David L. Barton, Vincent B. Wickwar, Joshua P. Herron, Leda Sox, Luis A. Navarro

Conference publications

A Rayleigh lidar was operated from 1993 to 2004, at the Atmospheric Lidar Observatory (ALO; 41.7°N, 111.8°W) at the Center for Atmospheric and Space Sciences (CASS) on the campus of Utah State University (USU). Observations were carried out on over 900 nights, 729 of which had good data starting at 45 km and going upward toward 90 km. They were reduced for absolute temperatures and relative neutral number densities. The latter at 45 km can be put on an absolute basis by using atmospheric models that go up to at least 45 km. The models’ absolute number densities at 45 …

Satellite Measurements Of Mesospheric Gravity Wave Temperature Variances Over The Andes, Jonathan Pugmire

Graduate Student Posters

Utah State University’s Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (MTM) has operated continuously at the Andes Lidar Observatory on Cerro Pachon, Chile (30.3° S, 70.7° S) since August 2009. Its purpose is to quantify gravity wave (GW) activity as observed in OH rotational temperature measurements in the mesosphere at an altitude of ~87 km with a particular interest in investigating short period GWs and their seasonal variability. 5.5 years data to date.

The SABER instrument aboard the TIMED satellite provides complimentary data to measure temperature variances and GW potential energy (PE) to quantify the small-scale GWs propagating up into the mesosphere, and lower …

Horizontal Phase Speed Distribution Of Gravity Waves Observed In Mesospheric Temperature Maps, Ahmad Talaei, Michael J. Taylor, Pierre-Dominique Pautet, Yucheng Zhao, Takashi S. Matsuda, Takuji Nakamura

Graduate Student Posters

The goal of the current work is to develop a method suitable for analyzing the horizontal phase speeds of atmospheric gravity waves from an extensive amount of gravity wave data obtained by the USU Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM) from Antarctica. The AMTM is a novel infrared digital imaging system that measures selected emission lines in the mesospheric OH (3,1) band to create intensity and temperature maps of the mesosphere. This analysis builds on the recent work by Matsuda et al 2014 using all-sky intensity data to investigate the horizontal phase speed distribution. In our analyses we applied this technique …

Rose: Roadmaps Towards Sustainable Energy Futures And Climate Protection: A Synthesis Of Results From The Rose Project, Elmar Kriegler, Ioanna Mouratiadou, Gunnar Luderer, Nico Bauer, Katherine Calvin, Enrica Decian, Robert J. Brecha, Wenying Chen, Aleh Cherp, Jae Edmonds, Kejun Jiang, Shonali Pachauri, Fabio Sferra, Massimo Tavoni, Ottmar Edenhofer

Robert J. Brecha

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Exploring energy demand and supply uncertainty: An exploration of uncertainty on drivers of energy demand and supply is indispensable for better understanding the prospects of long-tern climate stabilization. The RoSE study is the first of its kind to systematically explore the impact of economic growth, population and fossil fuel scarcity, in scenarios with and without climate policy, using a model ensemble. A feature of RoSE is the participation of five established integrated assessment modelling teams from three important regions in international climate policy negotiations: the EU, the USA and China. Economic growth: Neither slow nor rapid economic growth …

Gps Phase Scintillation At High Latitudes During Geomagnetic Storms Of 7–17 March 2012 – Part 1: The North American Sector, P. Prikryl, R. Ghoddousi-Fard, E. G. Thomas, J. M. Ruohoniemi, S. G. Shepherd

Dartmouth Scholarship

During the ascending phase of solar cycle 24, a series of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) in the period 7–17 March 2012 caused geomagnetic storms that strongly affected high-latitude ionosphere in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. GPS phase scintillation was observed at northern and southern high latitudes by arrays of GPS ionospheric scintillation and TEC monitors (GISTMs) and geodetic-quality GPS receivers sampling at 1 Hz. Mapped as a function of magnetic latitude and magnetic local time, regions of enhanced scintillation are identified in the context of coupling processes between the solar wind and the magnetosphere–ionosphere system. Large southward IMF and …

Early Rayleigh-Scatter Lidar Temperature Measurements From The Lower Thermosphere, Leda Sox, Vincent B. Wickwar

Leda Sox

Rayleigh-scatter lidar observations were made on many clear nights at the Atmospheric Lidar Observatory (ALO) at Utah State University (USU) from 1993 to 2004 in the altitude range 45–90 km. An upgraded facility, 66 times more sensitive, has been brought on line. It has resulted in temperature measurements with maximum altitudes that extend into new territory—the lower thermosphere. All-night temperature averages have been recorded up to an altitude of 114 km. Temperatures from each month, starting in June 2014, are presented and discussed. They are compared to each other, to the ALO-USU climatology from the original lidar, and to temperatures …

Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Newsletter (Summer 2015), Cheryl Stevens, Dean

Ogden College of Science & Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Boom Or Bust? Mapping Out The Known Unknowns Of Global Shale Gas Production Potential, Jérôme Hilaire, Nico Bauer, Robert J. Brecha

Physics Faculty Publications

To assess the global production costs of shale gas, we combine global top-down data with detailed bottom-up information. Studies solely based on top-down approaches do not adequately account for the heterogeneity of shale gas deposits and hence, are unlikely to appropriately capture the extraction costs of shale gas. We design and provide an expedient bottom-up method based on publicly available US data to compute the levelized costs of shale gas extraction. Our results indicate the existence of economically attractive areas but also reveal a dramatic cost increase as lower-quality reservoirs are exploited. At the global level, our best estimate suggests …

Observations Of Mesospheric Gravity Waves Over The Andes, Jonathan Pugmire, Michael Taylor, Yucheng Zhao

Student Research Symposium

Focusing on data from an imager and the SABER instrument aboard the TIMED satellite temperature variances are determined to quantify small-scale gravity waves. IDL software was used to extract all the temperature profile measurements that were measured by SABER within a limited geographical area, centered on our ground-based optical imager at Cerro Pachon, Chile (30.3°S, 70.7°S). Large-scale tidal waves, with wavenumbers 0-6, were removed from each profile revealing the gravity wave perturbations. Temperature variances reveal possible increased wave activity due to mountain waves. Mountain waves in the mesosphere are a relatively unexplored field in aeronomy. They are generated predominantly in …

Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Newsletter (Spring 2015), Cheryl Stevens, Dean

Ogden College of Science & Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Efficient General Computational Method For Estimation Of Standard Atmosphere Parameters, Nihad E. Daidzic Ph.D., Sc.D.

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Knowledge of standard air temperature, pressure, density, speed of sound, and viscosity as a function of altitude is essential information in aircraft design, performance testing, pressure altimeter calibration, and several other aeronautical engineering and aviation science applications. A new efficient computational method for rapid calculations of standard atmospheric parameters up to 86 orthometric km is presented. Additionally, mass and weight of each standard atmospheric layer were calculated using a numerical integration method. The sum of all fractional masses and weights represents the total mass and weight of Earth’s atmosphere. The results obtained here agree well with measurements and models of …

Flowering Phenology Change And Climate Warming In Southwestern Ohio, Ryan Mcewan, Robert J. Brecha, Donald R. Geiger, Grace P. John

Robert J. Brecha

Global surface temperature has increased markedly over the last 100 years. This increase has a variety of implications for human societies, and for ecological systems. One of the most obvious ways ecosystems are affected by global climate change is through alteration of organisms’ developmental timing (phenology). We used annual botanical surveys that documented the first flowering for an array of species from 1976 to 2003 to examine the potential implications of climate change for plant development. The overall trend for these species was a progressively earlier flowering time. The two earliest flowering taxa (Galanthus and Crocus) also exhibited the strongest …

A Recipe For The Estimation Of Information Flow In A Dynamical System, Deniz Gencaga, Kevin H. Knuth, William B. Rossow

Publications and Research

Information-theoretic quantities, such as entropy and mutual information (MI), can be used to quantify the amount of information needed to describe a dataset or the information shared between two datasets. In the case of a dynamical system, the behavior of the relevant variables can be tightly coupled, such that information about one variable at a given instance in time may provide information about other variables at later instances in time. This is often viewed as a flow of information, and tracking such a flow can reveal relationships among the system variables. Since the MI is a symmetric quantity; an asymmetric …

Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Newsletter (Winter 2015), Cheryl Stevens, Dean

Ogden College of Science & Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Propagation Of Lightning Through Thick Thunderclouds, Isaiah Henry, Dieudonné D. Phanord

McNair Poster Presentations

The phenomenon that is lightning, have sparked the interest of physicists and scientists for centuries. The journey to understanding this phenomenon of high-current electric discharge, can unlock the secret to other lightning related phenomenons. Lightning is a major source of interference in many types of radio communications. The effects of lightning on space crafts, nuclear power plants, and sophisticated military equipment, are problems of increasing concern. The purpose of this research is to study the propagation of lightning through optically thick thunderclouds by applying knowledge of cloud micro-physics, the physics of lightning, diffusion approximations, and an understanding of the scattering …

Spatial Analyses On Seismo-Ionospheric Precursors Observed By Gim Tec And Demeter During The 2008 M8.0wenchuan Earthquake, Jann-Yenq Liu, Yuh-Ing Chen, Cheng-Chi Huang, Michel Parrot, Sergey Pulintets, Dimitar Ouzounov

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

An abstract of the "Spatial analyses on seismo-ionospheric precursors observed by GIM TEC and DEMETER during the 2008 M8.0Wenchuan earthquake" paper presented at EGU General Assembly in 2015.