Longitudinal variability of Polar Mesospheric Cloud (PMC) albedo and frequency from the Cloud Imaging and Particle Size Experiment: Comparison of the 2007 and 2008 Northern Hemisphere cloud seasons

The Cloud Imaging and Particle Size (CIPS) Experiment on the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere Mission (AIM) images Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs) as a function of latitude and time. Data on PMC albedo and occurrence frequency have now been taken over two Northern Hemisphere seasons for 2007 and 2008 and one Southern season, 2007/2008. The data for the 2007 and 2007/2008 seasons have shown strong longitudinal variability of albedo and occurrence when averaged over periods of 15 to 20 days that are correlated to ice water content from the Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE) on AIM, and anti- correlated to temperature data from the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) and to the occurrence of gravity waves. We compare the time and longitudinal variations of cloud albedo and frequency of occurrence and temperature for the three seasons.