The wave2000 campaign: overview and preliminary results

The overview and preliminary results of the WAVE2000 campaign (Waves in Airglow Structures Experiment over Kagoshima in 2000) are presented. This is a coordinated rocket-born and ground-based measurement to investigate the formation process of waves in airglow structures. One of the unique aspects of this campaign is to measure the atomic oxygen and the airglow emissions on board a rocket. Such vertical information has been poorly examined with ground-based imaging so far. Since the atomic oxygen density profile was found to be atypical, with twin-peaks at 90 and 100 km, the present data set also provides an opportunity to examine our current understanding of the airglow excitation process. The ground-based and rocket-born airglow layer height measurements agreed within 2 km. The small-scale gravity waves observed during this experiment may not be upwardly propagating from below. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.