A Quantitative Comparison of the Polar Mesospheric Cloud Mass Between 1998-2003: SNOE vs. SBUV
Abstract
Polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) normally appear at high latitudes in the summer near 83 km and are believed to nucleate on sub-nanometer size dust particles. PMCs are known to vary in response to solar cycle changes and it was recently shown that they can form from space shuttle exhaust plumes injected into the lower thermosphere. The Student Nitric Oxide Explorer (SNOE) and the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV) instruments were simultaneously measuring PMCs in both hemispheres between 1998-2003. These experiments are unique because they can yield insight to daily PMC variability around the entire polar region with season, latitude, and solar cycle. A quantitative comparison of the two datasets is valuable for constraining models that use the solar cycle forcing of the ambient atmosphere to drive PMC variability and for assessing the impact of space traffic on the long-term (>10 year) PMC record. In this study, we present the first comparison of the total PMC ice mass observed by SBUV and SNOE. We will quantify the solar cycle effects on the ice mass using both datasets and compare the total ice mass observed with that available from space traffic. We will consider the viewing geometries and sensitivity of each instrument and account for the lighting conditions specific to each cloud observation. Since we have no direct information on the ice particle sizes, we will determine the impact on the results using a variety of distributions inferred from previous modeling and experimental studies of PMCs.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2005
- Bibcode:
- 2005AGUFMSA22A..07S
- Keywords:
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- 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345;
- 4801;
- 4906);
- 0310 Airglow and aurora;
- 0319 Cloud optics;
- 0321 Cloud/radiation interaction;
- 0360 Radiation: transmission and scattering