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Middle Atmosphere Temperature Results From A New, High-Powered, Large-Aperture Rayleigh Lidar, Leda Sox, Vincent B. Wickwar, Joshua P. Herron

Conference publications

In June–July 2012, observations were carried out using the recently upgraded, large-aperture, Rayleigh-scatter lidar system located at the Atmospheric Lidar Observatory (ALO) on the campus of Utah State University, in Logan, UT (41.7 N, 111.8 W). This time period was significant because it enabled us to observe the annual temperature minimum in the upper mesosphere-lower thermosphere region. The data collected during the campaign were analyzed for temperatures between ~70–109 km. The results above ~95 km are the first obtained with a Rayleigh-scatter lidar, extending the technique well into the lower thermosphere. A great deal of variability from night-to-night is evident …