The effects of the Quasi-Two Day Wave on Airglow observations at Alice Springs and Buckland Park Australia

The Quasi-Two Day Wave (QTDW) is a planetary wave which, although present globally, becomes intense in the southern hemisphere (especially at mid southern latitudes) in January through February. While the effects of the QTDW on the winds has been well documented only a few studies have been made on the effects on airglow emissions (e.g. Ward, W. E., B. H. Solheim, and G. G. Shepherd (1997), Two Day Wave Induced Variations in the Oxygen Green Line Volume Emission Rate: WINDII Observations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 24(9), 1127-1130). Two airglow imagers have been situated in Australia, at Buckland Park (3455S, 13836E) and Alice Springs (2342S, 13353E), since 2001. These instruments obtains images of the OH Meinel (6,2) band (hereinafter OHM) and O2 Atmospheric (0,1) band (hereinafter O2A) band emissions. A sequence of five images is obtained, each at 1 min integration, through separate narrow passband filters. Two of the filters cover two different rotational lines of OHM, two filters cover different portions of O2A, and one filter covers the background and has almost no airglow emission in its passband. The latter is used to correct the airglow images for background skylight. Thus, one can obtain images of the OHM and O2A airglow, the intensity and temperature of the OHM and O2A emissions, and atmospheric gravity wave horizontal wavelengths and velocity. A review of all the data have revealed some interesting phenomena that appear to be related to the presence of the QTDW. These include greatly enhanced airglow intensities, the potential for ducting of atmospheric gravity waves that originate in tropospheric convective sources, and perhaps even the presence of mesospheric bores. In this paper we will review the results of these airglow data with respect to the QTDW.