Semidiurnal tidal activity of the middle atmosphere at mid-latitudes derived from O2 atmospheric and OH(6-2) airglow SATI observations

In this paper, we investigate the tidal activity in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere region at 370N using OH Meinel and O2 atmospheric airglow observations from 1998 to 2015. The observations were taken with a Spectral Airglow Temperature Imager (SATI) installed at Sierra Nevada Observatory (SNO) (37.060N, 3.380W) at 2900 m height. From these observations a seasonal dependence of the amplitudes of the semidiurnal tide is inferred. The maximum tidal amplitude occurs in winter and the minimum in summer. The vertically averaged rotational temperatures and vertically integrated volume emission rate (rotational temperatures and intensities here in after), from the O2 atmospheric band measurements and the rotational temperature derived from OH Meinel band measurements reach the maximum amplitude about 1-4 h after midnight during almost all the year except in August-September where the maximum is found 2-4 h earlier. The amplitude of the tide in the OH intensity reaches the minimum near midnight in midwinter, then it is progressively delayed until 4:00 LT in August-September, and from there on it moves again forward towards midnight. The mean Krassovsky numbers for OH and O2 emissions are 5.9 ±1.8 and 5.6 ±1.0, respectively, with negative Krassovsky phases for almost all the year, indicating an upward energy transport. The mean vertical wavelengths for the vertical tidal propagation derived from OH and O2 emissions are 35 ±20 km and 33 ±18 km, respectively. The vertical wavelengths together with the phase shift in the temperature derived from both airglow emissions indicate that these airglow emission layers are separated by 7 ±3 km, on average.