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Highlights of this issue
Geophysical Research Letters, 28 December 2004

Special section on polar mesosphere-thermosphere study Portion of Lake Vostok paleoclimate record questioned

Results from a summer 2002 rocket and ground-based field cam- An anomaly discovered in the commonly used method to estimate
paign in northern Norway investigating the dynamics of the upper the age of ice samples in Lake Vostok may alter the paleoclimate
atmosphere are reported in a collection of papers in this issue. See record made from the ice core. Lake Vostok in central East Antarctica
Goldberg et al. [L24S01]. The Mountain and Convective Waves is well known for its paleoclimate ice-core record, which has been
Ascending Vertically (MaCWAVE) program focuses on the role of used to date prominent climatic transitions. Leonard et al. [L24401]
gravity waves in the structure and variability of the summer identified a surface area above the western shoreline of the lake where
mesopause. The Middle Atmosphere Dynamics and Structure the snow accumulation rate is unusually high, and they traced the
(MIDAS) program concentrated on small-scale dynamical and anomalously thick ice layers resulting from this snow to a depth of
microphysical processes near the mesopause. Data reported in this approximately 1 km. These particular layers in the Vostok ice core
special section indicate stronger than normal gravity wave activity are not mirrored in other Antarctic ice-core records. If these layers
throughout the region during that summer and unexpected circulation reflect local snow accumulation rates rather than changing climate
and temperature patterns. Together, these data suggest influences of conditions, interpretations of the ice-core data to date the sequence of
planetary wave dynamics that were not expected. In this section, global climate shifts during the last glacial period may have to be
Croskey et al. [L24S08] report on charged particle and plasma data revisited.
from rocket-borne instruments that clearly identified regions with and
without charged particles.
Low risk of volcanic break at Yucca Mountain

Warming climate will aggravate U.S. regional air pollution

A new analysis of the geological record at the planned Yucca
Mountain, Nevada, nuclear waste repository raises doubts about
Afuture warming climate may produce longer and more severe summer claims that the site is at risk of penetration by volcanic activity on
air pollution episodes in certain parts of the United States. Mickley average once every million years. Coleman et al. [L24601] exam-
et al. [L24103] investigated the effect of climate change on pollution ined four major pulses of basaltic volcanism in the vicinity, dating
transport through 2050, using the Goddard Institute of Space Studies between 80,000 and 13 million years ago, and found no basaltic dikes
general circulation model. They found significant increases in severity in the 13-million-year-old footprint of the repository. Using a hazard
and duration of pollution episodes in the midwestern and northeastern assessment model that acknowledges the absence of dikes and known
U.S. Pollutant concentrations rose 5-10% during these episodes and patterns of Pleistocene volcanism, the authors estimate that a more
the mean duration increased from 2 to 3-4 days. The culprit: a decline realistic probability of dike intrusion is less than once every 500 mil-
in the frequency of mid-latitude cyclones tracking across southern lion years.
Canada, which increases atmospheric stagnation over the midwestern
and northeastern U.S. It is well established that cyclones play a crit-
ical role in ventilating pollution from these two regions.
Ionospheric "heater" stimulates waves in magnetosphere

Researchers present the first observations of artificially stimulated

New view of disturbances in the mesopause magnetospherically propagating waves that are triggered by modu-
lated heating of the lower ionosphere and that may be used to induce
precipitation of energetic electrons to create an artificial aurora. Inan
An exceptionally long data set may allow researchers to estimate et al. [L24805] report results of an experiment conducted in April
daily shifts in winds and temperature caused by high-altitude distur- 2004 from the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program
bances. She et al. [L24111] used a sodium lidar facility at Colorado (HAARP) in Gakona, Alaska. Using a high-power, high-frequency
State University in 2003 to produce a 14-day data set that included an transmitter, well-defined volumes of the ionosphere were heated.
uninterrupted 9-day observation, the longest continuous middle Such modulated heating of the lower ionosphere excites signals that
atmosphere lidar observation recorded to date. The data allows were observed in the northern hemisphere near the transmitter facility
detailed study of the atmospheric influences of disturbances produced and on a ship in the southern Pacific Ocean. This capability to excite
by gravity waves and short-period planetary waves and the causes waves over a broad range of frequencies provides a test bed for the
behind the recurring tidal wind and temperature changes observed in study of the type of magnetospheric wave-particle interactions that
this region. form the aurora.

Cover. Launch of the MaCWAVE Terrier-Orion rocket (NASA 41.032) from Andøya Rocket Range (ARR), Norway (69.3°N,
16.0°E), on 1 July 2002 near local Midnight (2356 LT). The lower left panel shows the ALOMAR observatory near ARR with
the twin-beam Na and RMR lidars in operation. The upper left panel depicts the MIDAS measurements of temperature com-
pared with those of the Na lidar. The middle left panel shows deviation of the temperatures and winds measured during
MaCWAVE/MIDAS from a typical summer period. These items are discussed in more detail in the MaCWAVE/MIDAS special
section. See Goldberg et al. [L24S01].