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Upper atmosphere Ca and Ca + at mid‐latitudes: First simultaneous and common‐volume lidar observations
Author(s) -
Alpers Matthias,
Höfffner Josef,
von Zahn Ulf
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/96gl00372
Subject(s) - thermosphere , altitude (triangle) , lidar , atmosphere (unit) , atmospheric sciences , volume (thermodynamics) , latitude , middle latitudes , mesosphere , geology , ionosphere , physics , stratosphere , meteorology , geophysics , geodesy , remote sensing , quantum mechanics , geometry , mathematics
We report on simultaneous, common‐volume observations of Ca and Ca + layers in the 80 to 125 km altitude range by groundbased resonance lidar. The measurements were carried out during 9 nights in summer 1995 on the German island Rügen (55°N, 13°). We observed a permanent Ca layer with an average peak density of 31 atoms/cm³ at 87 km altitude. The average Ca column abundance was 2.2×10 7 cm; −2 . No permanent Ca + layer was found, but sporadic Ca + layers occured frequently in the altitude range 90–120 km. Peak densities of these thin layers varied between 65 and 3900 atoms/cm³. We demonstrate the interesting possibilities of groundbased simultaneous common‐volume observations of neutral and ionized calcium in the lower thermosphere.