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Rayleigh-Lidar Observations Of Mesospheric Instabilities, Gabriel C. Taylor, Durga N. Kafle, Vincent B. Wickwar

Posters

From 1993 to 2004 the Utah State University Rayleigh lidar, known as the USU green laser, collected 900 nights of data from the mesosphere (45-90 km). From these observations profiles of relative neutral densities and absolute temperatures were derived. Usually, the atmosphere is horizontally stratified with a balance between gravitational and pressure forces. When this balance is perturbed, it leads to the generation of buoyancy or “gravity” waves. An example of these is clear air turbulence, which can have dramatic effects on airplanes. As these waves propagate upward, the decrease in atmospheric density and conservation of energy combine to give …