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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Upgraded Alo Rayleigh Lidar System And Its Improved Gravity Wave Measurements, Leda Sox, Vincent B. Wickwar, Joshua P. Herron, Marcus J. Bingham Jun 2012

Upgraded Alo Rayleigh Lidar System And Its Improved Gravity Wave Measurements, Leda Sox, Vincent B. Wickwar, Joshua P. Herron, Marcus J. Bingham

Leda Sox

The Rayleigh-Scatter lidar system at the Atmospheric Lidar Observatory (ALO) on the Utah State campus is currently going through a series of upgrades to significantly improve its observational abilities. A specific objective of these upgrades is to expand the altitude range over which backscattered photons can be collected. A second objective is to increase the sensitivity of the instrument to be able to analyze the raw data at finer temporal and/or spatial resolutions. By measuring relative densities, the system will be able to produce absolute temperatures and relative density perturbations, which illustrate gravity wave structures. Gravity wave studies will significantly …


Upgraded Alo Rayleigh Lidar System And Its Improved Gravity Wave Measurements, Leda Sox, Vincent B. Wickwar, Joshua P. Herron, Marcus J. Bingham Jun 2012

Upgraded Alo Rayleigh Lidar System And Its Improved Gravity Wave Measurements, Leda Sox, Vincent B. Wickwar, Joshua P. Herron, Marcus J. Bingham

Graduate Student Posters

The Rayleigh-Scatter lidar system at the Atmospheric Lidar Observatory (ALO) on the Utah State campus is currently going through a series of upgrades to significantly improve its observational abilities. A specific objective of these upgrades is to expand the altitude range over which backscattered photons can be collected. A second objective is to increase the sensitivity of the instrument to be able to analyze the raw data at finer temporal and/or spatial resolutions. By measuring relative densities, the system will be able to produce absolute temperatures and relative density perturbations, which illustrate gravity wave structures. Gravity wave studies will significantly …


Observations With The Most Sensitive Rayleigh-Scatter Lidar, Leda Sox, Vincent B. Wickwar, Joshua P. Herron, Marcus J. Bingham Apr 2012

Observations With The Most Sensitive Rayleigh-Scatter Lidar, Leda Sox, Vincent B. Wickwar, Joshua P. Herron, Marcus J. Bingham

Leda Sox

The mesosphere is the most unexplored region of the atmosphere. Its altitude range of 50-85 km lies in between the reaches of data collecting instruments like weather balloons and satellites. For this reason, remote sensing systems, such as lidar, which are able to employ ground-based instruments to make extensive measurements in this difficult to detect region. The Rayleigh-scatter lidar at USU is currently being redeveloped to be the most powerful and sensitive of its kind. This type of lidar exploits light and particle interactions, like those that account for the blue color of the sky, to make relative density and …


Observations With The Most Sensitive Rayleigh-Scatter Lidar, Leda Sox, Vincent B. Wickwar, Joshua P. Herron, Marcus J. Bingham Apr 2012

Observations With The Most Sensitive Rayleigh-Scatter Lidar, Leda Sox, Vincent B. Wickwar, Joshua P. Herron, Marcus J. Bingham

Graduate Student Posters

The mesosphere is the most unexplored region of the atmosphere. Its altitude range of 50-85 km lies in between the reaches of data collecting instruments like weather balloons and satellites. For this reason, remote sensing systems, such as lidar, which are able to employ ground-based instruments to make extensive measurements in this difficult to detect region. The Rayleigh-scatter lidar at USU is currently being redeveloped to be the most powerful and sensitive of its kind. This type of lidar exploits light and particle interactions, like those that account for the blue color of the sky, to make relative density and …


First Year Investigation Of Gravity Waves And Temperature Variability Over The Andes., Jonathan Pugmire, Neal Criddle, Michael Taylor, Dominique Pautet, Yucheng Zhao Sep 2010

First Year Investigation Of Gravity Waves And Temperature Variability Over The Andes., Jonathan Pugmire, Neal Criddle, Michael Taylor, Dominique Pautet, Yucheng Zhao

Jonathan Pugmire

The Andes region is an excellent natural laboratory for investigating gravity wave influences on the Upper Mesospheric and Lower Thermospheric (MLT) dynamics: during the summer months the dominant gravity waves result from deep convection arising from severe thunderstorms over the continent to the east. In winter this convective activity is expected to be replaced by strong orographic forcing due to intense prevailing zonal winds blowing eastward from the Pacific Ocean and suddenly encountering the towering Andes mountain range (6000m). This creates large amplitude mountain waves that have been measured well into the stratosphere and most recently penetrate occasionally into the …


The First Ten Months Of Investigation Of Gravity Waves And Temperature Variability Over The Andes., Jonathan R. Pugmire, Neal Criddle, Michael J. Taylor, Dominique Pautet, Yucheng Zhao May 2010

The First Ten Months Of Investigation Of Gravity Waves And Temperature Variability Over The Andes., Jonathan R. Pugmire, Neal Criddle, Michael J. Taylor, Dominique Pautet, Yucheng Zhao

Jonathan Pugmire

The Andes region is an excellent natural laboratory for investigating gravity wave influences on the Upper Mesospheric and Lower Thermospheric (MLT) dynamics: during the summer months the dominant gravity waves result from deep convection arising from severe thunderstorms over the continent to the east. In winter this convective activity is expected to be replaced by strong orographic forcing due to intense prevailing zonal winds blowing eastward from the Pacific Ocean and suddenly encountering the towering Andes mountain range (6000m). This creates large amplitude mountain waves that have been measured well into the stratosphere and most recently penetration occasionally into the …


Intra-Annual Comparison Of Mesospheric Gravity Waves Over Halley And Rothera Stations, Antarctica., Jonathan R. Pugmire, Mike J. Taylor, Kim Nielsen May 2009

Intra-Annual Comparison Of Mesospheric Gravity Waves Over Halley And Rothera Stations, Antarctica., Jonathan R. Pugmire, Mike J. Taylor, Kim Nielsen

Jonathan Pugmire

As part of a collaborative program between British Antarctic Survey and Utah State University, we present an intra-annual study of short-period, mesospheric gravity wave events observed over Antarctica in the near infrared OH emission. The measurements were made using an all-sky airglow imager operated at either Halley Station on the Brunt Ice Shelf, or Rothera Station, situated on the Antarctic Peninsula. A total of six austral winter seasons have been analyzed (2000-2006). This study comprises the first detailed winter seasonal investigation of short-period mesospheric gravity waves at high-Antarctic latitudes. Distributions of their observed wave parameters were found to be similar …


Modeling The Electrodynamics Of The Low-Latitude Ionosphere, Christian Stephen Wohlwend Dec 2008

Modeling The Electrodynamics Of The Low-Latitude Ionosphere, Christian Stephen Wohlwend

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The electrodynamics of the Earth's low-latitude ionosphere is dependent on the ionospheric conductivity and the thermospheric neutral density, temperature, and winds present. This two-part study focused on the gravity wave seeding mechanism of equatorial plasma depletions in the ionosphere and the associated equatorial spread F, as well as the differences between a two-dimensional flux tube integrated electrodynamics model and a three-dimensional model for the same time period. The gravity wave seeding study was based on a parameterization of a gravity wave perturbation using a background empirical thermosphere and a physics-based ionosphere for the case of 12 UT on 26 September …