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First global observations of the mesospheric potassium layer
Author(s) -
Dawkins E. C. M.,
Plane J. M. C.,
Chipperfield M. P.,
Feng W.,
Gumbel J.,
Hedin J.,
Höffner J.,
Friedman J. S.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2014gl060801
Subject(s) - atmosphere (unit) , lidar , satellite , atmospheric sciences , environmental science , latitude , spectrometer , remote sensing , geology , climatology , meteorology , physics , astronomy , geodesy , optics
Metal species, produced by meteoric ablation, act as useful tracers of upper atmosphere dynamics and chemistry. Of these meteoric metals, K is an enigma: at extratropical latitudes, limited available lidar data show that the K layer displays a semiannual seasonal variability, rather than the annual pattern seen in other metals such as Na and Fe. Here we present the first near‐global K retrieval, where K atom number density profiles are derived from dayglow measurements made by the Optical Spectrograph and Infrared Imager System spectrometer on board the Odin satellite. This robust retrieval produces density profiles with typical layer peak errors of ±15% and a 2 km vertical grid resolution. We demonstrate that these retrieved profiles compare well with available lidar data and show for the first time that the unusual semiannual behavior is near‐global in extent. This new data set has wider applications for improving understanding of the K chemistry and of related upper atmosphere processes.