Hemispheric Differences in the Properties of Polar Mesospheric Clouds as Observed by SNOE: Evidence of Hemispheric Differences in Mesospheric Temperature and Temperature Variability

Details Hemispheric Differences in the Properties of Polar Mesospheric Clouds as Observed by SNOE: Evidence of Hemispheric Differences in Mesospheric Temperature and Temperature Variability Hemispheric Differences in the Properties of Polar Mesospheric Clouds as Observed by SNOE: Evidence of Hemispheric Differences in Mesospheric Temperature and Temperature Variability

May 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agusmsa52a..03b&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #SA52A-03

Physics

0305 Aerosols And Particles (0345, 4801, 4906), 0321 Cloud/Radiation Interaction, 0340 Middle Atmosphere: Composition And Chemistry, 3334 Middle Atmosphere Dynamics (0341, 0342)

Scientific paper

The Student Nitric Oxide Explorer (SNOE) observed Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMC) from 1998 through 2003. A limb-scanning ultraviolet spectrometer observed radiance profiles at 215 and 237 nm allowing the detection of PMC. Once detected, the altitude and brightness of the cloud relative to the background atmosphere are determined. In the nominal mode of operations, SNOE observed forward scattered radiance in the southern hemisphere and backward scattered radiance in the northern hemisphere. During the northern 2000 PMC season and the southern 2000/2001 and 2001/2002 seasons, SNOE was operated in a special mode that permitted observation of both forward and backward scattered radiance over the entire polar region throughout the PMC season. Observing the two hemispheres in nearly identical geometries allows us to provide quantitative comparisons between the northern and southern spatial and temporal morphology of PMC occurrence frequency. We show that the occurrence frequency of PMCs is larger in the north with greater equatorward extent, a larger population of bright clouds exists in the north, and that the northern clouds are on average approximately 1 km lower in altitude than those of the south. We demonstrate a quantitative relationship between the distributions of cloud brightnesses (the g-distribution), the mean temperature at cloud locations, and a measure of the variability in that temperature. Using this relationship we show that the hemispheric differences observed by SNOE can be explained by either differences in the mean temperature or differences in the variability in temperature.

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