Climatology Of Mesopause Region Temperature, Zonal Wind And Meridional Wind Over Fort Collins, CO (41ºN, 105ºW)

Since May 2002, regular observations of mesopause region temperature and horizontal wind have been conducted, weather and system hardware permitting. By April 2006, many campaigns with continuous observations longer than 24 hours were completed. Each continuous data set was analyzed to deduce mean values and tidal components of mesopause temperature and wind fields. The combined data set consists of 120 full-diurnal-cycle observations, with a minimum of 7 cycles in April and a maximum of 18 cycles in August. For this paper, monthly averages of the mean fields were calculated for climatological study, in particular the seasonal variations of mesopause region temperature, as well as zonal and meridional winds. The results are in qualitative agreement with our current understanding of temperature and wind structures in the mid-latitude mesopause region. The detailed monthly means will be discussed and presented along with corresponding predictions from the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM), using three different simulations of gravity-wave fields.