This project is a collaborative study between David Fritts at the University of Colorado and Chiao-Yao She at Colorado State University. The PIs will use the sodium lidar at Fort Collins and the Rayleigh lidar in place, as well as a resonance lidar to be developed at ALOMAR. The Fort Collins sodium lidar system currently has wind and temperature measurement capabilities with vertical and off-vertical viewing options. Since Fort Collins provides correlative data for middle atmosphere studies, efforts there will focus on dynamics studies using new and existing wind and temperature data. ALOMAR (the Arctic Lidar Observatory for Middle Atmosphere Research), a major optical and radar observatory in Norway, will provide comprehensive and nearly continuous measurements of atmospheric dynamics, structure and composition. Development of a resonance lidar capability at ALOMAR will extend continuous measurements (in altitude) of atmospheric temperature, constituents, winds and heat and momentum fluxes, permitting quantitative and correlative studies of mesospheric and lower thermospheric structure, dynamics, and variability not possible at any other site.***
