2012 Workshop: Lidar Discoveries and Advances

Starting in year 2010, several new lidar observational campaigns are being conducted worldwide, including two Fe lidar installations at McMurdo and Davis stations in Antarctica, a Na lidar campaign in Cerro Pachon, Chile, a new campaign at Logan, Utah with the relocated CSU Na lidar to USU, and observations at Boulder, Colorado with a newly constructed Na lidar. Plus continuing lidar observations at ALOMAR, Arecibo, Poker Flat with multiple instruments, and many other lidar observations being continued by CEDAR researchers, resonance and Rayleigh lidars are providing new and exciting data to the CEDAR science community. The renewed Consortium of Resonance and Rayleigh Lidars (CRRL) are enhancing the coordinated community effort for lidar innovation and science advancement. Collaborative studies among lidar groups and with co-located radar, imager, ionosonde, etc. and with satellite measurements have provided new potentials for multi-dimensional studies of the global upper atmosphere. This lidar workshop will provide a platform for the newest results to be presented, stimulating more science collaborations among observations, data analysis and modeling, and seeking new science potentials.

Intriguing results including significant science discoveries have been obtained in the physics, chemistry and dynamics of the middle and upper atmosphere. Good progress is being made in lidar development and innovation. We encourage presentations on various topics related to CEDAR lidar research, including but not limited to layered phenomena in the mesosphere and thermosphere, neutral and ion chemistry, characterization of gravity, tidal and planetary waves, wave dynamics, sources and impacts, coupling among different atmospheric regions, and lidar technology advancement. Both observations and modeling are welcome to this workshop. Discussion on lidar technology is also welcome.