One Decade of Noctilucent Cloud Observations Above ALOMAR by Lidar: Persistence and Variability at Different Time Scales.

Details One Decade of Noctilucent Cloud Observations Above ALOMAR by Lidar: Persistence and Variability at Different Time Scales. One Decade of Noctilucent Cloud Observations Above ALOMAR by Lidar: Persistence and Variability at Different Time Scales.

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsa31a..06f&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SA31A-06

Physics

1650 Solar Variability (7537), 3311 Clouds And Aerosols, 3332 Mesospheric Dynamics, 3389 Tides And Planetary Waves

Scientific paper

Noctilucent clouds (NLC) are the visible manifestation of icy particles persistently present in the polar summer mesopause region. Their formation is a rather complicated physical process depending on atmospheric background parameters, such as temperature and water vapor, which are hardly to measure directly at the altitudes of interest. This strong dependence on the atmospheric parameters and the fact that the clouds show variabilities at different time scales from minutes to several years, make NLC an attractive tracer for dynamic processes in the atmosphere. We report on observations of NLC using the ALOMAR Rayleigh/Mie/Raman (RMR) lidar in Northern Norway at 69N from 1997 to 2006. At this latitude NLC occur regularly from the beginning of June to the middle of August. Using the primary wavelength of the lidar at 532nm we have observed NLC signatures covering all local times even during highest solar background conditions. From the vertically resolved volume backscatter coefficient of the NLC particles, cloud parameters like brightness and altitude are derived. Furthermore, NLC occurrence frequencies as function of the cloud brightness are calculated. Investigations of the local time dependencies of cloud occurrence, brightness, and altitude yield a remarkable persistence concerning diurnal and semidiurnal variations. Within our 10-years data set, the year-to-year variations of cloud occurrence and brightness show signatures which we discuss in respect of the solar cycle. Furthermore our data are analyzed regarding a time lag between NLC occurrence/brightness and solar activity, as shown by visual as well as satellite observations. We compare our measurements with results from the Leibniz Institute Middle Atmosphere model (LIMA), a 3D GCM containing the relevant physical and chemical processes, such as dynamics, radiation, chemistry, and transport, including a mesospheric ice module. Spatial and temporal variability is introduced by assimilation of ECMWF data. These capabilities make it very suitable for comparisons with our experimental NLC data at different time scales.

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