Open AccessZonally symmetric oscillations observed in the airglow from South Pole Station
Author(s) -
Walterscheid R. L.,
Sivjee G. G.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2000ja000128
Subject(s) - airglow , mesopause , atmospheric tide , harmonics , amplitude , physics , geology , atmospheric sciences , wavenumber , geodesy , geophysics , thermosphere , ionosphere , mesosphere , optics , quantum mechanics , voltage , stratosphere
We have applied cross‐spectral techniques to airglow data obtained from South Pole Station at three different azimuths. The emissions originate from an OH‐Meinel airglow layer near the mesopause. The analysis has identified spectral features at frequencies that may be associated with tidal harmonics from 3 to 24 hours. The dominant tidal frequencies are 6 and 8 hours. Also, quasi 10‐ and 15‐hour spectral features are seen. Both are most likely normal modes. There is a strong tendency for the cross‐spectral phase of coherent features to be close to zero and distinct from migrating oscillations with zonal wavenumbers that are not a multiple of 3. This rules out migrating tides for the 6‐, 12‐, and 24‐hour tides. Migrating tides are possible for the 4‐ and 8‐hour tides, but theory indicates that these tides should have very small airglow brightness amplitudes at very high latitudes. The simplest interpretation of the data is that all of the observed oscillations are zonally symmetric.