Seasonal and Nocturnal Variations of the Mesospheric Sodium Layer at Starfire Optical Range, New Mexico

Hu Xiong; Chester S. Gardner; Alan Z. Liu

Seasonal and Nocturnal Variations of the Mesospheric Sodium Layer at Starfire Optical Range, New Mexico

Hu Xiong, Chester S. Gardner, Alan Z. Liu

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The seasonal variations of the mesospheric sodium layer structure over Starfire Optical Range (SOR: 35ºN, 106.5ºW), New Mexico are characterized using 46 night data of Na wind/temperature lidar observations collected from Jan. 1998 to May 2000. The column abundance has a mean value of 5.06 x 10 ⁹ cm ^-2 and strong annual oscillations of with a maximum in November and a minimum in June and July. The annual mean rms width of the sodium layer is 4.30 km and the mean centroid height is 91.60 km. Semiannual oscillations are evident in seasonal variations of the rms width and the centroid height. Their mean nocturnal variations show effects of tides. The photo-ionization during daytime and recombination processes of Na at night, as well as tidal dynamics, induce strong nocturnal variations in the sodium abundance with a minimum just before midnight and a maximum just before sunrise.

Original language	American English
Journal	Chinese Journal of Geophysics
Volume	46
State	Published - Jan 1 2003
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

sodium layer structure
seasonal variations
Na wind/temperature lidar

Disciplines

Physical Sciences and Mathematics

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Seasonal and Nocturnal Variations of the Mesospheric Sodium LayerFinal published version, 5.63 MBLicense: CC BY

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title = "Seasonal and Nocturnal Variations of the Mesospheric Sodium Layer at Starfire Optical Range, New Mexico",

abstract = " The seasonal variations of the mesospheric sodium layer structure over Starfire Optical Range (SOR: 35ºN, 106.5ºW), New Mexico are characterized using 46 night data of Na wind/temperature lidar observations collected from Jan. 1998 to May 2000. The column abundance has a mean value of 5.06 x 10 9 cm -2 and strong annual oscillations of with a maximum in November and a minimum in June and July. The annual mean rms width of the sodium layer is 4.30 km and the mean centroid height is 91.60 km. Semiannual oscillations are evident in seasonal variations of the rms width and the centroid height. Their mean nocturnal variations show effects of tides. The photo-ionization during daytime and recombination processes of Na at night, as well as tidal dynamics, induce strong nocturnal variations in the sodium abundance with a minimum just before midnight and a maximum just before sunrise.",

keywords = "sodium layer structure, seasonal variations, Na wind/temperature lidar",

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T1 - Seasonal and Nocturnal Variations of the Mesospheric Sodium Layer at Starfire Optical Range, New Mexico

AU - Xiong, Hu

AU - Gardner, Chester S.

AU - Liu, Alan Z.

PY - 2003/1/1

Y1 - 2003/1/1

N2 - The seasonal variations of the mesospheric sodium layer structure over Starfire Optical Range (SOR: 35ºN, 106.5ºW), New Mexico are characterized using 46 night data of Na wind/temperature lidar observations collected from Jan. 1998 to May 2000. The column abundance has a mean value of 5.06 x 10 9 cm -2 and strong annual oscillations of with a maximum in November and a minimum in June and July. The annual mean rms width of the sodium layer is 4.30 km and the mean centroid height is 91.60 km. Semiannual oscillations are evident in seasonal variations of the rms width and the centroid height. Their mean nocturnal variations show effects of tides. The photo-ionization during daytime and recombination processes of Na at night, as well as tidal dynamics, induce strong nocturnal variations in the sodium abundance with a minimum just before midnight and a maximum just before sunrise.

AB - The seasonal variations of the mesospheric sodium layer structure over Starfire Optical Range (SOR: 35ºN, 106.5ºW), New Mexico are characterized using 46 night data of Na wind/temperature lidar observations collected from Jan. 1998 to May 2000. The column abundance has a mean value of 5.06 x 10 9 cm -2 and strong annual oscillations of with a maximum in November and a minimum in June and July. The annual mean rms width of the sodium layer is 4.30 km and the mean centroid height is 91.60 km. Semiannual oscillations are evident in seasonal variations of the rms width and the centroid height. Their mean nocturnal variations show effects of tides. The photo-ionization during daytime and recombination processes of Na at night, as well as tidal dynamics, induce strong nocturnal variations in the sodium abundance with a minimum just before midnight and a maximum just before sunrise.

KW - sodium layer structure

KW - seasonal variations

KW - Na wind/temperature lidar

UR - https://commons.erau.edu/db-physical-sciences/29

M3 - Article

SN - 2326-0440

VL - 46

JO - Chinese Journal of Geophysics

JF - Chinese Journal of Geophysics

ER -

Seasonal and Nocturnal Variations of the Mesospheric Sodium Layer at Starfire Optical Range, New Mexico

Abstract

Keywords

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