9:30 AM - 9:45 AM
[PEM15-03] The VortEx sounding rocket experiment in March 2023
Keywords:Mesosphere, Thermosphere, Mesoscale dynamics, Gravity waves
The Vorticity Experiment (VortEx) is designed to study mesoscale structures in the wind field in the lower thermosphere (90-130 km). In this region gravity wave drag is still very important in shaping the global circulation, but little is known about how the waves interact with the regions of large tidal winds and wind shears, or even where they originate. VortEx consists of two identical salvoes with two payloads each to be launched in March 2023 from Andoya, Norway: a tracer payload for wind measurements generating two visible trails between 90 and 150 km and sixteen horizontally spaced tracers between 90 and 120 km; and an instrumented payload for in situ measurements of neutral density, temperature, ion and electron parameters and electric fields. Common volume ground-based wind observations are made by a meteor radar using multiple receivers to obtain a 3D wind field at meteor heights (85-100 km). Additional winds in the lower thermosphere are derived from EISCAT observations of the vector ion drift. The gravity wave activity (and associated temperature perturbations) will be monitored in the OH airglow (~89 km) by an imager viewing the launch sector. The Rayleigh lidar at ALOMAR will observe winds and temperatures in the stratosphere mesosphere, which also show gravity wave and tidal activity. We present an overview of the experiment and first data as they become available.