Open AccessRelationship between the summer mesopause and polar mesospheric cloud heights
Author(s) -
Russell James M.,
Rong Pingping,
Bailey Scott M.,
Hervig Mark E.,
Petelina Svetlana V.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2010jd013852
Subject(s) - mesopause , atmospheric sciences , environmental science , mesosphere , polar , supersaturation , mixing ratio , climatology , physics , geology , stratosphere , thermodynamics , astronomy
Satellite data analyses indicate that variations of daily mean polar mesospheric cloud (PMC) height and mesopause height correlate on a range of intraseasonal time scales both short and long (i.e., ∼4 days to 2 months). The average of a multiyear analysis from OSIRIS/Odin, SNOE, AIM, and SABER/TIMED data sets in the polar regions north (south) of 65°N (°S) shows that on a daily basis the mean PMC height ( max ) is located 3.5 km ± 0.5 km below the mean mesopause height ( mes ) in both hemispheres throughout the season and for all years examined. The data show that the relationship persists over multiple PMC seasons. This is a robust result that has also been verified with thermodynamic equilibrium and microphysical modeling. Model results from a large number of ensemble simulations show that max remains ∼3.5 km below mes as long as the vertical average of the ambient temperature minus the frost point temperature difference over the supersaturated region is about ‐10 K or less for all the individual simulations. max is located less than 3.5 km below mes for warmer supersaturated region temperatures. The distance between the cloud and the mesopause heights ( Z mes − Z max or Δ Z ) is controlled by the corresponding temperature structure in the supersaturated region. It is concluded that the variation of Δ Z is mostly driven by the variation of the temperature structure instead of the H 2 O mixing ratio magnitude or vertical distribution.