Polar Mesospheric Clouds: What have we Learned?

Details Polar Mesospheric Clouds: What have we Learned? Polar Mesospheric Clouds: What have we Learned?

May 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agusm..sa31b02t&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2001, abstract #SA31B-02 INVITED

Physics

0305 Aerosols And Particles (0345, 4801), 0320 Cloud Physics And Chemistry, 0325 Evolution Of The Atmosphere, 0340 Middle Atmosphere--Composition And Chemistry, 1610 Atmosphere (0315, 0325)

Scientific paper

Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMC) are the space manifestation of noctilucent clouds, visible during high-latitude summertime twilight. PMC were first sighted by astronauts in the mid-1960's, but their full transpolar extent was not appreciated until the Ogo-6 airglow experiment in 1969. Since then, a number of satellites have carried instruments capable of observing PMC's : SME, SAGE-II, the Nimbus and NOAA series, POAM II- and -III, MSX, CRISTA-SPAS, SNOE, and very recently, ODIN. The high-quality MSX images have provided new information on small-scale horizontal structure. A recent breakthrough using HALOE measurements of PMC near-IR extinction shows that their absorption spectra matches that of water ice. Despite this recent progress, and the plethora of new information on the geographical, seasonal and interannual "climatology" of PMC, there is still much to be learned about the physical origins of the clouds.This stems from the rarity of simultaneous and common-volume measurements of the dynamic and complex properties of their environment. This brief review covers the known ground, and then focusses on the outstanding scientific questions. These questions in turn establish the kinds of measurements needed for future space experiments, in order to understand the inter-decadal variability of PMC now thought to be linked to long-term change in the upper atmosphere.

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