MAYNOOTH OPTICAL AERONOMICAL FACILITY

Ground-based measurements of upper atmospheric parameters, such as tem perature and wind velocity, can be made by observing airglow emissions that have a well-defined altitude profile and that are known to be re presentative of the emitting region. We describe the optical observato ry at Maynooth (53.23 degrees N, 6.4 degrees W) at which two instrumen ts, a Fabry-Perot interferometer and a Fourier transform spectrometer, are used to record atmospheric airglow emissions in Ireland at visibl e and near-infrared wavelengths, respectively. Descriptions of the ins truments, data acquisition, and analysis procedures are provided, toge ther with some sample results.