The Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper: Observation of Gravity Waves from below

Imagine you are laying on the bottom of the sea watching the sea surface billowing. What would you be able to observe? If you had a lot of patience, you would observe the tides as they gradually raise and lower the water level. But on shorter time scales, you would probably observe a whole zoo of waves: Big waves, small waves, waves that run to the left, waves that run to the right, circular waves, maybe a few bow waves. And all of them would overlap. As if that weren't chaotic enough, turbulence also comes into play when the waves start to break. With all that in mind watch the following video.

What you have just watched is the nighttime hydroxyl (OH) emission in the infrared. OH is generated by the reaction of ozone and hydrogen at an altitude of about 87km resulting in a 9km thick OH-layer. The emission of infrared light from this layer is a function of the ambient temperature. Taking advantage of this fact, the Advanced Mesopsheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM) as constructed by colleagues from Utah State University is able to detect the zoo of waves as it is present in the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere region.