Novel Fabry-Perot interferometer measurements of F-region ion temperature

[1] Novel optical measurements of F-region ion temperatures have been made in conjunction with thermospheric neutral temperatures. A ground-based Fabry-Perot interferometer has been used to observe high-latitude F-region ion temperatures using the O+(P-2) auroral emission at 732 nm, and upper-thermospheric neutral temperatures using the O(D-1) airglow emission at 630 nm. Dual wavelength measurements were made during February 2001 and clearly show that the ion temperature is equal to or greater than the neutral temperature, as expected. EISCAT radar measurements show that there is good agreement between the incoherent scatter and optical Doppler broadening methods of inferring ion temperature.