The Ground-Based Airglow Imager Network in China: Recent Observational Results

The topography of China is diverse including seas, coasts, deserts, mountains, and plains. The Tibetan Plateau has the highest mountain on Earth. From north to south, the country spans from the geographic middle to the tropical latitudes. To better understand the topographic effects on the mesosphere and thermosphere and the corresponding perturbations in the thermosphere/ionosphere at various latitudes over China, we established a ground-based airglow imager network across China that consists of 15 stations and several temporary stations for observational campaign objectives. This network focuses on two airglow layers: the OH airglow layer near 87 km and the OI red-line airglow layer that peaks at about 250 km. This paper highlights some recent observational results from the network. These include the characteristics of gravity wave activity in the Chinese region and the effects of the Tibetan Plateau on gravity waves, the gravity waves induced by thunderstorms and typhoons, medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances, and ionospheric plasma bubbles.