Evidence of an extra‐terrestrial source for the mesospheric sodium layer

Lidar observations of the mesospheric sodium layer, made at São José dos Campos (23°S, 46°W), show three distinct types of organized structure in the vertical distribution of sodium. Profiles averaged over several days show a smooth but asymmetrical distribution. A sequence of profiles for a given night normally shows a wavelike structure which descends through the layer with time. Very occasionally an extremely narrow peak is observed at a constant height for several hours. On one occasion a layer 2.5 km wide, with scale heights of 700 m on the bottomside and 900 m on the topside, was observed to persist at a constant height for three hours. It is concluded that such a layer could neither be produced by neutral density perturbations nor by photochemical processes and therefore indicates a source of sodium in the mesosphere.