Bulletin of the American Physical Society
Annual Meeting of the Four Corners Section of the APS
Volume 59, Number 11
Friday–Saturday, October 17–18, 2014; Orem, Utah
Session I3: Atmospheric Physics |
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Chair: Kim Nielsen, Utah Valley University Room: Science Building 060 |
Saturday, October 18, 2014 10:15AM - 10:39AM |
I3.00001: Crossing the Chasm, A Physicist in Private Industry Invited Speaker: Scott Sternberg In his book ``Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers,'' Geoffrey Moore, introduced a model of how innovations become mainstream technologies. Specifically his theory highlights the importance of identifying a target and setting a singular scope at the early stages of development. To this day, this model serves as a standard for high-tech entrepreneurship. As high-technology invades all aspects of our lives, people still sit at that center of innovation. The basic skills and perspectives learned through a degree in physics are perfect tools for fueling future innovations. However, it is often difficult for a physicist to ``cross the chasm'' into private industry. Some insights into making this transition and the importance of physicists in the private sector will be shared. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 18, 2014 10:39AM - 10:51AM |
I3.00002: Can Volcanic Lightning be observed in Space? Jose M. Martinez, Ronald Thomas Occurrence within ash clouds of volcanic lightning increases the difficulty to detect and measure it optically with remote instruments. Major volcanic eruptions are likely to have lightning. This lightning should be seen from space by LIS and OTD (Lightning Imaging Sensor, Optical Transient Detector). Ash clouds however absorb much more light than regular clouds which results in lower or no radiance measured for lightning in the ash plume. LIS/OTD satellite data was studied for a small region centered on different volcanoes during reportedly active periods. LIS and OTD are in low orbits and do not cover the entire globe. Since any volcano is observed only a few minutes each day the likelihood of observing lightning events during a volcanic eruption is low. Inter comparison of lightning data from several eruptions all over the world helps set a criteria to distinguish volcanic lightning from thunderstorm related lightning. LIS datasets, typically structured in four different levels -- events, groups, flashes, areas -- are plotted separately retrievingorbit data from individual HDF files. Events associated to volcanic lightning are distributed in fewer groups, which in turn are structured in less flashes than ``regular'' lightning. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 18, 2014 10:51AM - 11:03AM |
I3.00003: Pierre Auger Observatory Measurements of Elves David Grisham, Lawrence Wiencke Emissions of Light and Very low frequency perturbations due to Electromagnetic pulse Sources, or Elves, are transient luminous events that occur above some electrical storms. The Pierre Auger Observatory cosmic ray fluorescence detectors (FDs) measure such events. Examples of Elves recorded by the FDs will be discussed, along with their implications and possible future developments in the data analysis of Pierre Auger's Elves measurements. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 18, 2014 11:03AM - 11:27AM |
I3.00004: Spectacular Imaging Studies of Atmospheric Gravity Waves Michael Taylor, Pierre-Dominique Pautet, Yucheng Zhao, William Pendleton Atmospheric gravity waves (AGW) play a vital role in controlling both the dynamics and temperature structure of the Earth's upper atmosphere. We show how ground-based measurements of the naturally occurring airglow emissions in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere (MLT, $\sim$80-100 km) region can be used to investigate wave-driven dynamics as a function of season and latitude. In particular, high-quality all-sky imagers and temperature mappers provide unique information on the characteristics and propagation of a broad spectrum of AGW over large geographic areas. This presentation introduces the AGW phenomena, illustrating their properties using spectacular observations obtained at polar and mid-latitudes using an Infrared Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM) developed at Utah State University. These studies include high-resolution image measurements of gravity wave propagation and breaking, new spectral analyses of large-scale tides and planetary waves, and first results from the NSF DEEPWAVE mission which included airborne AMTM measurements from a Gulfstream V aircraft. The mission was based in New Zealand with multiple research flights during the Austral winter (June-July 2014), focused on investigating a prominent AGW ``hot spot'' region over the Southern Ocean. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 18, 2014 11:27AM - 11:39AM |
I3.00005: Polar Mesospheric and Thermospheric Gravity Wave Measurements Using Optical and Radar Techniques Michael Negale, Kim Nielsen, Michael Taylor, Dominique Pautet, Michael Nicolls Atmospheric gravity waves (AGW) play an important role in atmospheric circulation via momentum deposition in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) region ($\sim$ 80--110 km). Modeling and observational studies have shown that AGW can penetrate to high altitudes and play similar roles in the thermospheric region ($\sim$ 110--400 km). All-sky airglow imagers provide one technique to remotely sense airglow emissions in the MLT, and extract AGW parameters. An imager installed at Poker Flat Research Range (PFRR), Alaska (65 N) was operated during the winter months (August--April) from January 2011--April 2014 to investigate small-scale (wavelengths \textless 100 km) AGW in the high Arctic. These data have recently been compared with new imaging results (October 2011 March 2012) using an Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM) operated at ALOMAR Observatory, Norway (69 N) to study longitudinal differences in wave propagation. In contrast several case studies have revealed the presence of much larger scale AGW in the thermosphere, but the distributions and variability of the AGW are currently unknown. Using recently developed methods, we present new high-latitude thermospheric AGW characteristic distributions obtained using the PFRR Incoherent Scatter Radar during a one year period (August 2010--July 2011). Their winter season distributions are compared to the smaller-scale AGW results from the PFRR imager and ALOMAR AMTM. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 18, 2014 11:39AM - 11:51AM |
I3.00006: TIMED/SABER satellite investigations of mesospheric gravity wave variances over the Andes Jonathan Pugmire, Michael Taylor, Yucheng Zhao, Dominique Pautet, James Russell, III Focusing on data from the SABER instrument aboard the TIMED satellite temperature variances are determined as a function of altitude to quantify small scale gravity waves. This was done using IDL software to extract all the temperature profile measurements that were measured by SABER within a limited geographical area, centered on our ground-based optical imager at Cerro Pachon, Chile (30.3$^{\circ}$S, 70.7$^{\circ}$S). Then large-scale tidal waves, with wavenumbers 0-6, were removed from each profile revealing the gravity wave perturbations. The temperature variance were computed and recorded at several altitudes. Temperature variances reveal possible increased activity due to mountain waves. Mountain waves in the mesosphere are a relatively unexplored field in aeronomy. They are generated by strong winds blowing over mountains creating stationary waves as viewed from the ground. They propagate upwards depositing momentum and energy, and grow in amplitude predominantly in the winter months. Initial results will be shown comparing satellite and ground-based observations. This technique has high potential for investigating gravity wave effects with other ground-based measurements around the world. [Preview Abstract] |
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