High-latitude remote sensing of mesospheric wind speeds and carbon monoxide

We present high‐resolution ground‐based measurements of mesospheric carbon monoxide (CO) taken in the years 2002–5 from the AST/RO sub‐millimeter telescope, located at Amundsen‐Scott South Pole Station. These include the first winter measurements of CO directly from one of the geographic poles, which agree well with expected high concentrations within the polar vortex. We also use CO as a tracer to estimate mesospheric neutral wind speeds, by measuring small Doppler shifts in the rotational emission spectrum. We highlight the potential of high‐resolution radiometric measurements mesospheric winds to fill a significant experimental data gap.