Na temperature lidar measurements of gravity wave perturbations of wind, density and temperature in the mesopause region

High resolution temperature profiles of the mesopause region above Fort Collins, CO (40.6°N,105°W) were measured with a Na lidar on the nights of March 2–3 and April 15–16, 1990, during the ALOHA‐90 campaign. This paper reports the initial scientific analysis of these data which were used to compute (1) the altitude profiles of relative atmospheric temperature perturbations, (2) the mean Brunt‐Vaisala frequency in the mesopause region, and (3) the vertical shear variance of horizontal winds. On March 2–3 and April 15–16, the rms temperature perturbations were 5.7% and 7.1%, the average Brunt‐Vaisala periods were 4.9 min and 4.6 min, and the wind shear variances were 878 (ms −1 /km)² and 967 (ms −1 /km)², respectively.