Airglow temperature photometers using cooled-CCD detectors: Comparison with a sodium lidar

We have developed three airglow temperature photometers using cooled-CCD detectors. The photometers measure rotational temperatures through the airglow emissions of OH (emission altitudes: 80-90 km) and O2 (90-100 km) near the mesopause region. The CCD detectors are used to distinguish the rotational lines of these airglow bands, similar to those used by the Spectral Airglow Temperature Imagers (SATI) [Wiens et al., Adv. Space Sci., p.677, 1997]. From September to November 2003, we made a campaign measurement of the mesospheric temperature using the three photometers and a sodium lidar of the Colorado State University at Platteville, Colorado (40.2N, 255.3E). The correspondence of the temperatures obtained by two instruments is fairly good with differences of less than 10-20 K.