Wave Dynamics in the Mesospheric Hydroxyl Layer
Abstract
Due to the improvement of infrared measuring instruments, it is possible to observe the middle atmospheric airglow directly from ground-based sites with fine temporal and spatial resolution. In such studies, temporal and spatial fluctuations are found in two major observables: emission intensity and rotational temperature. One possible cause of such fluctuations is passing atmospheric disturbances, known as internal gravity waves. There have been considerable theoretical modeling efforts and experimental investigations to test this hypothesis. This paper attempts to develop a theoretical model of the mesospheric airglow observables. The model uses underlying physical and chemical processes to derive the following physical entities as functions of altitude: the concentrations of major species and minor but influential species and the kinetic temperature of the neutral atmosphere. The model also incorporates geometrical configurations in order to estimate the following observables: the infrared emission intensity for a particular vibrational band and the rotational emission-line intensities for a particular vibrational band. Many theoretical models assume that gravity waves are monochromatically sinusoidal. This study asserts that such an assumption is not valid, based upon the propagation characteristics of the waves.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA229306
Entities
People
- Hitoshi Yoshimoto
Organizations
- Utah State University