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Latitude variations in light scattered from polar mesospheric clouds
Author(s) -
Carbary J. F.,
Morrison D.,
Romick G. J.
Publication year - 2001
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 - 10.1029/2001gl013086
Subject(s) - radiance , latitude , polar , zenith , middle latitudes , solar zenith angle , atmospheric sciences , arctic , polar night , geology , environmental science , physics , remote sensing , geodesy , astronomy , oceanography
A middle ultraviolet imager over the northern and southern polar regions has measured the scattered intensities of polar mesospheric clouds (PMC) during the austral summer of 1997–98 and the arctic summer of 1999. The intensities, corrected for solar zenith angle, are those at the peak in the PMC radiance profiles for a waveband of 235–263 nm. The peak radiance averaged 12.0±11.0 mega‐Rayleighs (MR) for 13 passes over the south polar region, where the scattering angle was ∼111°. The peak radiance averaged 11.4±7.6 MR for 12 passes over the north polar region, where the scattering angle was ∼48°. The PMC intensities increased with increasing latitude in both the north and the south, but the rate of increase was twice as fast in the south (0.60 MR/° latitude) as in the north (0.32 MR/° latitude).