Noctilucent Cloud Imaging and Tomography using a Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicle
Abstract
Noctilucent Clouds (NLCs) are the highest clouds in the Earth's atmosphere, residing at a mean altitude of 83 km. They have been observed since 1885 around the summer solstice and are considered to be very sensitive indicators for what is going on in the atmosphere at higher altitudes. They have been observed to both increase in brightness and frequency as well as extend to lower latitudes and it has been hypothesized that the anthropogenic causes of climatic change may be directly related to NLC presence. An experiment is currently supported through NASA's Flight Opportunities program to use a Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicle (SRLV) to fly a manned, stabilized imager suite through an NLC layer to obtain imagery and topography data of unprecedented resolution. The campaign is targeted for July 2014 and will involve a series of flights from a high-latitude spaceport when NLC activity is observed. These data should advance our understanding of energy and momentum deposition to the upper atmosphere through enhanced observations of gravity wave perturbations, instability dynamics, and turbulent regions.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFMSA11B..07R
- Keywords:
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- 0342 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE / Middle atmosphere: energy deposition;
- 0394 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE / Instruments and techniques;
- 7594 SOLAR PHYSICS;
- ASTROPHYSICS;
- AND ASTRONOMY / Instruments and techniques