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The ALOMAR Weber Sodium Lidar
Probing the mesopause for it's temperature and wind speeds... Named
the "ALOMAR Weber Sodium Lidar", in honor of the late Dr. Edward Weber,
an ionospheric physicist at the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the
late Louis R. Weber, former Head of the CSU Physics Department from
1939 to 1964.
![]() ![]() The Sodium lidar detector bench |
Some history: "The first lidar operation, using one beam and one telescope was quite successful and the quality of the received signal fully demonstrated the expected performance. The first atmospheric Na signal ("The first light") was detected on 09:50:15 UT, Sunday, August 13, 2000 under daylight, partly cloudy conditions. The first 24 hours observation with 3-freqency operation, providing information of temperature and line-of-sight wind was completed ~1:30 UT, Wednesday, August 16, 2000. Fair weather prevailed at ALOMAR Monday night, all three lidar operated between 21:00, Aug. 14 and 01:00, Aug. 15 with quality data, demonstrating the potential of clustered lidar observation at ALOMAR." Future Prospect: Dual beam, dual telescopes and 24-hour capability Measurement Precision: 0.9 km smoothing and 5 (25) min integration, night (day) ~0.5 K at 92 km and ~5 K at 81 and 107 km ~1.5 m/s at 92 km and ~15 m/s at 81 and 107 km making the Weber a unique facility for measuring temperature, winds as well as gravity-wave fluxes in polar mesopause region. Anticipated Research Activities: The lidar will be used for such studies by Joe She of CSU and Dave Fritts of CoRa and their colleagues. Measurement Uncertainties: 0.5 K and 1.5 m/s at the Na peak (92 km), and 5 K and 15 m/s at the Na edges (81 and 107 km) for each beam at night, with 0.9 km spatial resolution and 5 min integration. Daytime uncertainty increases by a factor of 2.3. Lidar System Parameters:
The image to the left is showing a sporadic sodium layer coinciding with the launch of a Midas (improved Orion) sounding rocket during the MaCWave/Midas campaign at Andøya Rocket Range. |