First Simultaneous Lidar Observations of Thermosphere-Ionosphere Fe and Na (TIFe and TINa) Layers at McMurdo (77.84°S, 166.67°E), Antarctica With Concurrent Measurements of Aurora Activity, Enhanced Ionization Layers, and Converging Electric Field.

We report the first simultaneous, common-volume lidar observations of thermosphere-ionosphere Fe (TIFe) and Na (TINa) layers in Antarctica. We also report the observational discovery of nearly one-to-one correspondence between TIFe and aurora activity, enhanced ionization layers, and converging electric fields. Distinctive TIFe layers have a peak density of ~384 cm-3 and the TIFe mixing ratio peaks around 123 km, ~5 times the mesospheric layer maximum. All evidence shows that Fe+ ion-neutralization is the major formation mechanism of TIFe layers. The TINa mixing ratio often exhibits a broad peak at TIFe altitudes, providing evidence for in situ production via Na+ neutralization. However, the tenuous TINa layers persist long beyond TIFe disappearance and reveal gravity wave perturbations, suggesting a dynamic background of neutral Na, but not Fe, above 110 km. The striking differences between distinct TIFe and diffuse TINa suggest differential transport between Fe and Na, possibly due to mass separation.

Eliminating photon noise biases in the computation of second-order statistics of lidar temperature, wind, and species measurements.

The precision of lidar measurements is limited by noise associated with the optical detection process. Photon noise also introduces biases in the second-order statistics of the data, such as the variances and fluxes of the measured temperature, wind, and species variations, and establishes noise floors in the computed fluctuation spectra. When the signal-to-noise ratio is low, these biases and noise floors can completely obscure the atmospheric processes being observed. We describe a novel data processing technique for eliminating the biases and noise floors. The technique involves acquiring two statistically independent datasets, covering the same altitude range and time period, from which the various second-order statistics are computed. The efficacy of the technique is demonstrated using Na Doppler lidar observations of temperature in the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere acquired recently at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. The results show that this new technique enables observations of key atmospheric parameters in regions where the signal-to-noise ratio is far too low to apply conventional processing approaches.

Optimizing three-frequency Na, Fe, and He lidars for measurements of wind, temperature, and species density and the vertical fluxes of heat and constituents.

The measurement accuracies of three-frequency resonance fluorescence Doppler lidars are limited by photon noise and uncertainties in the laser frequency and line width. We analyze the performance of Na, Fe, and He lidars using a new technique, which incorporates precise information about the absorption spectrum of the species and the pulse spectrum of the lasers. We derive the measurement errors associated with photon noise, laser frequency errors, and laser line width errors. Optimizing the lidar design, based upon the measurement requirements, can improve system performance by reducing the required integration times, enabling measurements to be made in less time or at higher altitudes where the densities and signal levels are smaller. The optimum frequency shift for observing heat and constituent transport velocities is 689 MHz (580 MHz) at night (day) for Na lidars and 774 MHz (597 MHz) for Fe lidars. The optimum frequency shift for observing winds, temperature, and He densities is 3.66 GHz (3.16 GHz) at night (day) for He lidars.

Performance capabilities of middle-atmosphere temperature lidars: comparison of Na, Fe, K, Ca, Ca+, and Rayleigh systems.

The measurement accuracies of modern resonance fluorescence and Rayleigh temperature lidars are limited primarily by photon noise. The narrowband three-frequency fluorescence technique is shown to perform within a few decibels of the theoretical optimum at night for both temperature and wind observations. These systems also exhibit good performance during the day because the fluorescence wavelengths of Na, Fe, K, Ca, and Ca+ all correspond to strong solar Fraunhofer lines, where sky brightness is attenuated by a factor of 5 or more. Whereas Na systems achieve the highest signal-to-noise ratios for mesopause region observations (80-105 km), the three-frequency Fe system is attractive because it performs well as both a fluorescence and a Rayleigh lidar throughout the middle atmosphere at approximately 25-110 km.

Removal of meteoric iron on polar mesospheric clouds.

Polar mesospheric clouds are thin layers of nanometer-sized ice particles that occur at altitudes between 82 and 87 kilometers in the high-latitude summer mesosphere. These clouds overlap in altitude with the layer of iron (Fe) atoms that is produced by the ablation of meteoroids entering the atmosphere. Simultaneous observations of the Fe layer and the clouds, made by lidar during midsummer at the South Pole, demonstrate that essentially complete removal of Fe atoms can occur inside the clouds. Laboratory experiments and atmospheric modeling show that this phenomenon is explained by the efficient uptake of Fe on the ice particle surface.

Fe Boltzmann temperature lidar: design, error analysis, and initial results at the north and south poles.

The design, development, and first measurements of a novel mesospheric temperature lidar are described. The lidar technique employs mesospheric Fe as a fluorescence tracer and relies on the temperature dependence of the population difference of two closely spaced Fe transitions. The principal advantage of this technique is that robust solid-state broadband laser source(s) can be used that enables the lidar to be deployed at remote locations and aboard research aircraft. We describe the system design and present a detailed analysis of the measurement errors. Correlative temperature observations, made with the Colorado State University Na lidar at Fort Collins, Colorado, are also discussed. Last, we present the initial range-resolved temperature measurements in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere over both the North and the South Poles obtained with this system.