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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 109, D02S03, doi:10.1029/2002JD003079, 2004

TOMEX: Mesospheric and lower thermospheric diffusivities and instability layers

R. L. Bishop

Department of Physics, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, USA


M. F. Larsen

Department of Physics, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, USA


J. H. Hecht

Space and Environmental Technology Center, The Aerospace Corporation, Los Angeles, California, USA


A. Z. Liu

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA


C. S. Gardner

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA


Abstract

The Turbulent Oxygen Mixing Experiment (TOMEX), which was carried out at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on 26 October 2000, included a rocketborne trimethyl aluminum (TMA) chemical tracer experiment. The subsequent TMA trails provided detailed information about the horizontal neutral wind, turbulence, and diffusivity properties of the atmosphere between approximately 85 and 140 km altitude. Measurements with the University of Illinois Na wind/temperature lidar located at the Starfire Optical Range, NM, provided a detailed time history of the stability properties between 85 and 105-km altitude, including high-resolution wind and temperature measurements prior to and during the chemical tracer measurements. The diffusivities estimated from the trail expansion rates have values consistent with the values expected for molecular diffusion above 110-km altitude and values that are larger than those for molecular diffusion at most altitudes below. Below 103 km, both regions of dynamic and convective instability were found, and the diffusivities are strongly controlled by the instabilities. The unstable regions are well mixed, but the intermediate regions, in some cases, have very small eddy energy dissipation rates. The nearly instantaneous measurements also suggest that eddy diffusion is still important in the height range between 103 km, the nominal turbopause height, and 110 km.

Received 25 October 2002; accepted 4 August 2003; published 20 January 2004.

Index Terms: 3332 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Mesospheric dynamics; 3379 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Turbulence.

Subscriber Access to Full Article (Nonsubscribers may purchase for $9.00, Includes print PDF, file size: 823499 bytes)

Citation: Bishop, R. L., M. F. Larsen, J. H. Hecht, A. Z. Liu, and C. S. Gardner (2004), TOMEX: Mesospheric and lower thermospheric diffusivities and instability layers, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D02S03, doi:10.1029/2002JD003079.