Long-Term Wind and Temperature Measurements in the Arctic Mesosphere and Lower-Thermosphere

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

This research project will conduct long-term observations of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere of the atmosphere for changes in temperature. The temperature will be determined from wind and optical measurements taken with meteor radars at four sites in the Arctic: Barrow, Alaska, Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, and Dixon and Heiss Islands, Russia. The measurement program is timed to take advantage of a NASA satellite measurement program that will focus on the same part of the atmosphere. Because the introduction of greenhouse gases influences atmospheric temperature, the long-term measurements will be affected by anthropogenic as well as natural changes in temperature. The researchers will attempt to separate the two signals and use temperature changes caused by introduction of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to provide a warning that greenhouse gases are affecting atmospheric temperature. Observed temperature changes will be used to examine the dynamic coupling of the middle and lower atmospheres as well as the physical processes that affect changes in the thermal structure of the atmosphere. The long-term observations will be an important contribution to understanding of the long time-scale evolution of the middle/lower atmosphere at a time when the Arctic appears to be undergoing major changes in response to a climatic warming.