A comparison of space-based observations of the energy budgets of the mesosphere and the troposphere

Details A comparison of space-based observations of the energy budgets of the mesosphere and the troposphere A comparison of space-based observations of the energy budgets of the mesosphere and the troposphere

May 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002jastp..64..877m&link_type=abstract

Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Volume 64, Issue 8-11, p. 877-887.

Physics

3

Scientific paper

The flow of energy from the Sun, through the atmosphere, to the Earth's surface and oceans, and ultimately back to space, controls the weather and climate of the planet. Since the dawn of the Space Age, the energy balance of the planet has been measured by orbiting satellites. Over the past 40 years the technology and the scientific understanding have developed to the point where we can measure not only the energy balance of the entire Earth and its atmosphere but also of the various regions of the atmosphere including the troposphere, the stratosphere, and the mesosphere. With the planned space-based observations of the sources and sinks of energy in the mesosphere, the energy balance of this region of the atmosphere may soon be better understood from observations than the energy balance of the troposphere on seasonal to annual timescales. Fundamental to this assertion is the fact that the primary sources and sinks of radiative and chemical potential energy, the thermal structure, and the winds in the mesosphere are to be directly observed by space-based instrumentation at high vertical resolution, in contrast to the troposphere. In this paper we review some of the planned measurements of the energy budgets of the atmosphere from existing and future space-based platforms. We particularly show how the airglow can be used to determine many of the key sources of energy in the mesosphere. These ideas provide the basis for interpretation of new space-based measurements of the mesosphere planned in the near future.

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