The Andes Lidar Observatory is an NSF Upper Atmosphere Facility, located in Cerro Pachón, Chile. Its main mission is to make detailed measurement of the upper atmosphere (80 to 110 km) above the Andes, with a suite of ground based remote sensing instruments. The key instrument at ALO is a Na resonance-fluorescense lidar, which is capable of making night time measurements of atmospheric temperature, 3D wind, and Na density at high temporal and vertical resolutions (~1 min, 500 m) between 80 and 110 km altitude. ALO also houses several passive optical instruments, including a Mesosphere Temperature Mapper, an Infrared Imager, a near infrared All Sky Imager. A meteor radar is also located near ALO. More detailed description of each instrument are available under the Instrument section.
The data collected at ALO are being used for a broad range of scientific research. This includes gravity wave characterization, planetary waves, gravity-wave tide interactions, instabilty processes and gravity wave breaking, atmospheric composition, gravity wave flux, eddy flux and turbulence diffusion. More detailed description of current scientific projects are listed in the Science section.