We describe the Fabry—Perot interfero-meter designed to study Earth’s upper atmosphere. We propose a modification of the existing data processing method for determining the Doppler shift and Doppler widening and also for separating the observed line intensity and the background intensity. The temperature and wind velocity derived from these parameters are compared with physical characteristics obtained from modeling (NRLMSISE-00, HWM14). We demonstrate that the temperature is determined from the oxygen 630 nm line irrespective of the hydroxyl signal existing in interference patterns. We show that the interferometer can obtain temperature from the oxygen 557.7 nm line in case of additional calibration of the device. The ob-served wind velocity mainly agrees with model data. Night variations in the red and green oxygen lines quite well coincide with those in intensities obtained by de-vices installed nearby the interferometer.

We study the spatiotemporal dynamics of mid-latitude aurora from observations in the south of Eastern Siberia during St. Patrick’s severe geomagnetic storm on March 17, 2015. We perform a morphological analysis of characteristics of the observed auroras. A preliminary conclusion is drawn that the analyzed event is the result of the manifestation of mid-latitude auroras of two types (type “d” and SAR arc) and ordinary aurora observed at the northern horizon. The maximum intensity of the dominant emission [OI] at 630.0 nm (~14 kR) allows this mid-latitude aurora to be attributed to the extreme auroras occurring in mid-latitudes, which is second only to the November 20, 2003 superstorm (~19 kR).

Studies of the upper atmosphere have to be performed using optical photometric and spectrometric means. Modern devices allow precise photometry of the glow of the night atmosphere — airglow — with high temporal spatial and spectral resolution. As a result, the obtained airglow parameters make it possible to determine the physicochemical properties of the upper atmosphere and observe their variation under the influence of various factors. The National Heliogeophysical Complex, which is being created in Eastern Siberia, is therefore to include a certain set of modern optical instruments. The paper presents the main phenomena that will be investigated by the optical instruments of the complex, provides information on their composition and scientific goals, presents the results of preliminary studies performed using a prototype of the instruments. As a result of the studies, the presence of a significant (about 10 m/sec) vertical wind at various altitudes (100 and 250 km) was established, the importance of taking into account the vertical wind to study the vertical dynamics of the charged component was demonstrated. The long-term dynamics of the vertical wind at an altitude of about 100 km has a pronounced seasonal variations and the absence of diurnal variations, whereas the dynamics of the vertical wind at an altitude of 250 km has a pronounced diurnal variations, which is mostly clearly defined in winter. This suggests the presumed presence of vertical circulation cells at various altitude levels. The possibilities of optical stereoscopy and differential image analysis methods are demonstrated, as applied to the study of fast luminous formations and conducting active ground and space experiments to modify Earth's ionosphere. We report the results of the determination of a three-dimensional picture of a long-lived meteor track with the use of two wide-angle cameras. We propose an algorithm that allows us to get a stereo image of events occurring in the upper atmosphere, recorded simultaneously from different observation points. The joint work of the tools of this complex and the development of cooperation with third-party organizations are shown to be a good enough direction for further study of the vertical dynamics of Earth’s upper atmosphere and space weather phenomena.

This study presents a new method for determining a neutral wind velocity vector. The basis of the method is measurement of the group velocities of internal gravity waves. Using the case of the Boussinesq dispersion relation, we demonstrated the ability to measure a neutral wind velocity vector using the group velocity and wave vector data. An algorithm for obtaining the group velocity vector from the wave vector spectrum is proposed. The new method was tested by comparing the obtained winter wind pattern with wind data from other sources. Testing the new method showed that it is in quantitative agreement with the Fabry–Pérot interferometer wind measurements for zonal and vertical wind velocities. The differences in meridional wind velocities are also discussed here. Of particular interest were the results related to the measurement of vertical wind velocities. We demonstrated that two independent methods gave the presence of vertical wind velocities with amplitude of ~20 m/s. Estimation of vertical wind contribution to plasma drift velocity indicated the importance of vertical wind measurements and the need to take them into account in physical and empirical models of the ionosphere and thermosphere.

Unique observation of a long-lasting meteor trail of about half an hour duration is described. The trail resulted from a burning meteor from the Leonid storm flux in the middle latitudes over eastern Siberia. We describe three-dimensional morphological characteristics of both the meteor and the long-lasting trail using data from wide-angle CCD cameras. Additionally, we present the meteor and the trail radiolocation characteristics obtained with a meteor radar and ionosonde. The background dynamics of the upper atmosphere at the height where the long-lasting trail developed were observed using data from the meteor radar and Fabry-Perot interferometer. The obtained results allowed the conclusion that the dynamics of a long-lasting trail are conditioned by the wind. However, during the first minutes of trail development, it is possible that a high-speed component is present, resulting from explosion of the meteor body in the atmosphere. A primitive spectral analysis of the long-lasting trail’s optical emissions and earlier studies point to hydroxyl molecules as a possible source of the glow. We believe the enhanced hydroxyl emission could be related to interaction of excited O(1D) oxygen atoms with meteor body water in the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

We describe the Fabry—Perot interferometer designed to study Earth’s upper atmosphere. We propose a modification of the existing data processing method for determining the Doppler shift and Doppler widening and also for separating the observed line intensity and the background intensity. The temperature and wind velocity derived from these parameters are compared with physical characteristics obtained from modeling (NRLMSISE-00, HWM14). We demonstrate that the temperature is determined from the oxygen 630 nm line irrespective of the hydroxyl signal existing in interference pictures. We show that the interferometer can obtain temperature from the oxygen 557.7 nm line in case of additional calibration of the device. The observed wind velocity mainly agrees with model data. Night time variations in the red and green oxygen lines quite well coincide with those in intensities obtained by devices installed nearby the interferometer.